A Peculiar Wight
by astridzeogearfried
Summary: Maria reizend, a peculiar girl, formerly living in Germany with her friends until her loop slips and they leap straight to another one where she finds she no longer has control over her peculiar capability and, unwillingly, seeks the help of a wight who resides in the same peculiar home with many mysteries to be uncovered...
1. Chapter 1 the new loop, enter maria

Germany: 1943, "HURRY! HURRY! THEY'RE GETTING CLOSER!" A little girl cried. "Don't yell at the horses! Or else they won't go anywhere!" Another girl whispered but loud enough for the other one to hear her. "We just have to stay quiet long enough and then when we make it to the beach we can turn right and go up the mountain!" A young boy told the two worried girls. There were a few other kids but they simply remained silent and focused. There were two teenagers and 5 kids. The girl who cried first was ellie, short for elliot, her parents had wanted a boy. The second girl was one of the two teens, she was called alice. The boy who had the strategy was phillip. They were limited on horses so another boy was sitting behind him on the same saddle, alexander. Another teen, who was sweating with fear, had on a navy blue wool sweater that had the Star of David on it, this was maria but everyone called her mary. "You wouldn't be sweating and panting like a hound if you'd taken that blasted sweater off!" Phillip yelled. She just gave him a dirty glare, wheeled up her sleeve to show her arm and it quickly morphed into a jagged blade, he looked away in fright while shaking slightly. "Change back!" Alice yelled as a blasting light came upon them and the sound of their devilish dogs barking non-stop. _Faster, anna, faster! _The girl thought with her head close to it's ears and the horse looked toward the others, nodded and their entire herd had gone up in speed dramatically. Almost throwing one of the other boys off their horses. "THE BEACH IS COMING UP!" Ellie yelled, _Prepare to turn right very quickly, anna! _Alice thought to her horse and her horse alerted the others. "COME BACK HERE! YOU ODDITIES HAVE TROUBLED ALL OF US ENOUGH!" "WE'VE TROUBLED YOU?! WHY YOU LITTLE-" Alice brought her horse closer to ellies and cupped her mouth. They had arrived at the beach and alexander turned over to one of the silent girls, "QUICKLY, MAKE US INVISIBLE!" The girl who hadn't spoken was sarah, she flew up her arm and just like that, they were completely invisible. They made a hard right and started running toward the top. "UP AT THE TOP IS A CLIFF LEADING TO THE SEA, WHEN WE GET UP THERE-" "-PLEASE TELL ME WE'RE NOT GOING TO-" "JUMP!" They came to the top very quickly due to alice telling the horses to speed up. "ALRIGHT, NOW, JUST BELOW US IS AN ENTRANCE TO OUR LOOP, NOW C'MON!" Just then, they heard gunfire and alice's horses leg got shot and the two crashed down with a thud, sarah lost her concentration and their invisibility completely disappeared. "SARA BRING UP THE INVISIBILITY! I'M GONNA BE FINE, MEET YOU THERE NOW HURRY!" Alice yelled then put her hand to the horses wounded leg, a small light shined then the leg was healed, she looked back up and noticed that no one had moved a muscle. Alice hopped off the horse to allow her better balance for standing, _I'm sorry anna, we need you to come with us, please. _Alice thought. Then the barking of the dogs and their motor vehicles grew louder, anna shot up and with her head, picked up alice and she slid down her neck to land perfectly in the saddle. "The cliff's just up ahead!" "Tengo un mal presentimiento sobre esto..." The last teen said who was rafael, a hispanic who knew no german nor english. At the bottom of the cliff lied a raging, stormy sea with large jagged rocks below. _JUMP! _Alice told the other horses, without consent of the others, they screamed as the horses leaped into the air, one of the wights wielding a gun fired and it hit ellie's shoulder as blood splattered onto her horse. By the time the nazi's and wights made it to the top of the cliff, they looked down to where they'd fallen and there was nothing there.

While under the water, the 'horses' began growing gills, their hoofs became long fins, despite the change they all remained brown, they all were peculiar animals of the same kind. Alice noticed, ellie in dire pain from the salt water making it's way into her shoulder gash, _rise, alpha, your friend needs air. _Ellie's 'horse' rose up as instructed by alice, the horse was still entirely submerged but ellie's whole upper body was above water, she had compared it to riding a dolphin atop the water. They were all headed to a nearby island, not too long a distance and just a straightforward path, when they had arrived, the water was as gray as the clouds that had enveloped the sky but the further they went as all of them came closer to the island, the clouds moved away rather quickly and the sun started to shine brightly. While under, alice had noticed rafael and sara holding their throats as their faces turned red, _alright, anna, everybody, rise, your friends are in slight need of oxygen. _The 'horses' rose to lift their companions above sea level and all of them gasped though alice stayed under, making everyone worried for HER air. "¿Puedes oírme, ana, Alice?" Rafael asked, alexander cocked an eyebrow, "what makes you think a fish horse understands spanish?!" Rafael was a little confused and squinted his eyes while it looked like he was trying to guess what he had said, conveniently maria happened to know multiple languages, including spanish and decided to translate, "Rafael, alexander le había pedido groseramente" lo que te hace pensar un caballo de pescado puede hablar español? '" Rafael turned to glare at alexander then smirked as he brought his 'horse' closer to his then snapped his fingers and moved away with a cocky grin, making alexander puzzled. Just then millions of tiny bubbles came up to the surface, it looked as though the water behind him was boiling but in a limited size circle and began to chase. Piranhas surfaced and bit his butt and part of his back, rafael chuckled slightly, he doesn't take too kindly to others sarcasm. They all were nearing the island, but a couple of seconds they'd be on land, the sun shined brightly on them as it appeared to be high noon. Finally alice came up and the horses started to revert back to their original forms until finally stepping onto the sand in normal horse form. Everybody got off of their peculiar animals but right as ellie got off of hers she toppled to the ground and began bawling at how much the shot had stung with the salt in it. This alerted alice as she ran over to her friend and put her hands on the wound, she'd only healed animals before so this was her first attempt at a human injury, her regular light glowed and the hole closed up but it still formed a scab. "It appears that humans seem to be more difficult, animals heal much quicker, I just speed up the pace." Alice explained, ellie sniffled but managed to stifle her tears as she slowly got up. "Este es un lazo mucho más bonito que el anterior ...". Everyone turned to maria, "He said this is a much nicer loop than before." "The last one wasn't supposed to be a good loop." Alexander stated. "Anyway, we know that this must be a loop so there must be an ymbryne somewhere close. Let's go around the perimeter and then-" "that'll take too long! I say, cut straight through the forest then we'll-". All of a sudden there was an earthquake, cutting off maria and alexander, the horses started getting nervous, anna jumped back with her two front legs kicking in the air until she finally fell back down, making a huge thud. A huge stream of fire launched into the air followed by some water to douse it. "ESTO PARECE INTERESANTE! DEBEMOS SABER LA CONMOCIÓN!" "Maria?" Everyone asked in sync, "He says that we should see what the commotion is." Alice put ellie on her back to give her a ride since she looked tired, she looked back at the horses that behaved and stayed perfectly still but was reluctant to give them these orders; _You guys, stay here! If I…, we need you, I'll be sure to call, we're headed toward the loud sounds ok? _She didn't expect a response, "HURRY UP, ALICE OR WE'LL LEAVE WITHOUT YOU!"_ Seems they all decided to put themselves in danger without my opinion, this may get bad._ She ran toward her friends as ellie was about to fall asleep.

The forest they ventured through was considerabely short as after but a half minute they could see all the way through the ends of the trees and noticed a village being terrorized by some odd peculiar. They all were confused when they saw a fellow peculiar harm innocent people, it was a girl who looked to be about 10 or 11 and she was wearing sunglasses, as expected due to the sun's blinding brightness. It appeared that the girl could sense their presence and turned toward their direction, sarah acted quickly and made an invisible barrier to make them unseen, the girl looked away with a sigh. To rafael this made him think she was ok, "Tal vez ella es amable". Maria slapped the back of his head for his idiotic remark, "¡Idiota! ¿De verdad crees que ella es amigable?" Everyone turned to face them with confused glances as they argued in spanish, after thumping his head, maria told them what he had said; "Maybe she's friendly-" Just then, the girl burned another building and forced out the family living there, the others slapped their foreheads now knowing the stupidity of his statement. "LOOK!" Phillip, who had been rather quiet most of this time had pointed out something VERY peculiar about the girl, the same hand she used to burn the building shot ice, it first emerged like a frosted gas then liquified, finally hardening. She brought up her other hand and that one shot out fire once more, burning yet another building, surprisingly, she was laughing like a child who had just gotten a wonderful party gift and seemed like she was having a lot of fun until one brave, tall, and muscily man ran up to her, tied her two hands into a bag tightly, put her arms behind her back while the man held them. The children gasped, then another man walked up, scolding her for a while then finally slapping her, making her glasses fall off, she closed her eyes tightly so no one could see them, she was slapped repeatedly and tears began to fall but kept her eyes closed. The man knee'd her in the stomach and this time her eyes shot wide open from the shock, he managed to keep her eyes open by putting his fingers to her eye lids, her eyes were white. The crowd that had gathered, jumped back, "WITCH!" "ABOMINATION!" "DEVIL'S CHILD!" The girl fell to the ground as the townspeople started kicking her, sarah lost her focus so the inviso-barrier disappeared, maria charged out of the bushes she hid her hand inside her sweater and it emerged as a small jagged dagger. "NO MARY! DON'T!" She sliced the calf of one of the men that were kicking her and he crashed down like a ton of bricks, she turned to look back at the person she had cut and he had the swastika on his upper-arm, mary gasped when she noticed that the whole group had swastika's and she ran but while she did, they saw her hand change back from a blade to it's regular form as well as the Star of David on her very out-of-place sweater due to the heat. Everybody else was wearing their stars on the inside of their socks and under their shoes. Sarah had gotten us in trouble and into that chase by trying to fool the nazi's. She had a long dark blue skirt that had tons and tons of stars all were the same color but were actually the Star of David, they couldn't notice until one of them finally got a closer look and saw that it had SIX points instead of the normal five. For fooling them, she ran away but ran toward us, bringing the horses with her, alice noticed her outside and took everyone with her on her horses quickly and the chase started. Maria was the only one who ever wore her Star of David in plain sight, she claimed to be proud of her religion but actually, all of them were proud…, they just valued their lives. Rafael ran up next and grabbed the girl, though, it was before she could pick up her sunglasses, she decided to keep her eyes shut but she also was resisting the help. Rafael snapped his fingers again as the townsfolk started to chase them since he had the girl. A giant great white shark leaped into the air from the nearby beach they had swam out of and it began it's attack, everyone screamed and most of them left in a panic. It was the men that stayed but they were faster than the others, finally, alice arrived on her peculiar horse, anna and alpha. She started running close to the two of them, grabbed rafael's hand and yanked him up onto the back of her saddle, the girl jumped onto alpha as they ran back toward the forest. Sara, mary, ellie, philip, and alexander immediately noticed they had been left behind until they heard alice's faint whistle in the distance and out came their horses, they were picked up unwillingly by the horses heads, as they slid down their backs and landed on the saddle, they heard alice whistle once again and the horses began charging into the forest.


	2. Chapter 2 an odd peculiar and her pet?

"WHY DID ALICE TAKE US THROUGH THE FOREST?!" Sarah yelled in slight confusion. "BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE SHE'S GOING!" Alexander sarcastically yelled back, the running through the forest and brushing fast against the tree's leaves and branches including the fast and loud wind muffled their words if they were to talk normally. Not long after the gallop through the forest, did they finally come to a clearing. Everyone was shocked with their view; An enormous field of flowers to one side then nothing but beautiful shining grass, you could tell it had recently rained to this part of the island seeing as there were water droplets reflecting the bright sun.

All of their jaws fell in awe of the lovely scenery, "LOOK, IT'S ALICE!" Philip noticed but she was still running next to rafael and the girl the two were carrying. They were confused as to why alice kept going, "WELL?! Let's follow, that's why alice summoned the other horses to come pick us up, c'mon!" Sarah whipped the ropes and her horse started toward their master, alexander and philip looked at each other, shrugged then told their horses to follow their friend. Everyone stopped when they got to the top of the hill as they met up with alice, rafael, and the random girl who was pointing in the direction beyond the hill even though she had her eyes closed, sarah had her head tilted toward the side in confusion. Alexander looked at alice who seemed to be shocked but in a happy sort of way then he looked to where alice was looking and saw a pool, a huge house, though it was so large it almost seemed to be multiple buildings. The girl got off the horse and snapped her fingers, rafael and everyone else knew she was peculiar so they wondered what, other than shooting fire and ice from her hands, snapping her fingers would do then they saw a shadow running up the hill from the house. Sarah thought it seemed to be just another peculiar with the same power as her, that's what the others thought as well but then they remembered that when sarah makes them invisible they'll have no shadow. When it finally came up to the top of the hill, where they were and something slimy attached itself to mary's leg. "MARY!" Philip shrieked as it started to pull mary off of her saddle while she held onto it for dear life, which could end up being rather short very soon. "SHUT UP SPENCER!" The odd girl yelled as she slapped the unseeable 'animal' on it's head and it screamed in pain when they heard a heavy thud and the flowers underneath the shadow flattened. It's scream rang through their ears like a torturous dog whistle, alice and rafael got off their horses after maria fell, they picked her up but she held in her own screams in agony. She lifted her long skirt since that seemed to be the source and each of them saw a huge red welt with some teeth marks that were bleeding lightly, she turned to face the girl with a shocked and slightly terrified face, "wight…". The wind blew heavily after she spoke as if the field itself wanted to cover up her words, the girls' hair blew in their faces, and their dresses and skirts became wavy with the movement of the large bleeze. It stopped and everyone turned to face maria with surprised looks while she just stared accusingly at the girl with a scowl and she repeated herself for her friends to hear her. "SHE'S A WIGHT! AND _THAT'S_ HER HOLLOW!" She pointed straight at the girl who started to open her eyes, they were white. While she pointed at her with no sign of lowering her arm any time soon, her leg began to bleed profusely and the two had a stare down, she noticed the flowers rising back up slowly as though the thing that crushed them before was obviously getting

.

++ back up. Maria put both hands behind her back, one formed a sword, the other, a large axe. Philip couldn't see the hollows but could sense their movement, then the girl smiled friendly. "I don't wanna fight, name's Archy." She stuck her hand out to maria who, pulled out her arms and put them to the girl's neck, ready to slice her to bits. Her smile remained and since she refused to change back her hands, shook the axe, maria was shocked at her lack of fear and put the sword to neck once more. Her hollow snarled, she, and everyone else could hear it and got scared, she snapped her fingers and the hollow crashed again to the ground with another screech that made everyone fall to their knees with it's awful high pitch. The girl walked away from maria's blade and toward the hollow, "I THOUGHT I told you to shut up!" Ellie was the first to step forward without any fear, maria was about to stop her but then alice put her hand on her shoulder and her hands changed back to normal. "Hi, I'm ellie, short for elliot, my parents wanted a boy and you said your name was...archy?" The girl smiled again, ellie held out her hand and then archy shook it. "Name's archy, yes, my parents are uncreative." Ellie was confused, archy sounded rather creative to her but then something came to alice. "Wait...you have peculiar powers but…-" "I'm also a wight, I can explain when we get inside, it's gonna rain in an hour." _Loop_, everyone thought at once. "HEEEEYYYY ARCHYYYYYY! IT'S TIME FOR TAG!" She looked over at the person who was yelling, so did the others, it was a little girl who looked to be about sarah or ellie's age so she seemed to be around 6 or 7. The little girl was waving fast, they looked back at archy, she looked back with a smile, "get on your weird animals and follow me." She said as she lifted one leg up high and then looked as though she was sitting on air, her feet were above the ground and her shadow was right next to the one she seemed to be sitting on then looked back at the group. "Well...c'mon! Follow me!" Alice got on her horse with no question same as sarah and ellie, alexander and philip were hesitant then rafael picked the two up by the collar of their jackets. Maria glared at archy, she decided not to take a horse and had been practicing her capabilities. She turned her hands into bicycle wheels, shocking rafael, he thought he knew her better than everyone. "Yo no sabía que se podía dar vuelta a sus manos en algo más que las armas!" She looked back at rafael, "Está bien, nadie sabía que podía hacer esto, yo sólo he estado practicando." He had said to her that he was surprised that she could do this with her arms, thinking that he should've known, she said that she told no one. "Wanna race?" Archy asked, alice nodded, sarah and ellie giggled with a smile, alexander and philip shrugged, rafael readied his horse with a smirk. "GOOOO!" They all charged down the hill like a huge herd of stampeding cattle. Archy and her hollow were much faster than the others, _anna quickly, I need you to catch up to her, I'll give you your favorite fish food. _Alice told her horse fish and she sped up, maria grew impatient as she started to flash by everyone else, they were nearing the house and it was incredibly colorful with some red walls, brown window outlining, the window glass was similar to that of a church's with it's array of brightness, a dark blue roof with multiple balconies, all of which were white. None of them could slow down because of the wet grass, the little girl who called for archy was still in the doorway sporting a knee low, black, corset dress, gray stockings, ankle heel, tightly laced, brown boots, a big, black, sunhat with a purple silk bow, and long sleeves with leather white gloves, her light brown hair in thick curls was out and she quickly raised her hand and everything came to a stop. She lowered her hand, maria's arms changed back and she fell on her butt, rahael, alexander, philip, and alice's horses just fell over, ellie and sarah fell while their horses simply stopped, archy's hollow slid and sighed, throwing archy flying off. She landed in front of the doorstep and the little girl, "hey archy!" The girl greeted with an absent minded and naiive smile, archy growled but reluctantly got up and started whispering into the girl's ear making maria even more suspicious. The girl skipped out into the sun in front of the house and the large group, "hi! I'm Iris! I hear you guys are peculiar right?" They nodded, ellie got up and maria was tempted to stop her but alice put her hand on her shoulder once more and shook her head to say "no". Ellie shook hands with Iris and the two smiled then Iris took her hand to bring her in but archy stopped her, "we need to know what all of your peculiarities are...what's yours?" Everyone gasped, ellie turned to look at her with a glare, despite her size and age, her eyes said "ask me again and you won't get to see tomorrow." Archy stepped back in slight fear but quickly picked up the pieces of her pride that had fallen from being threatened by a little girl, "w-well I-I guess I can make an e-exception f-for y-you…".


	3. Chapter 3 The Crow

She smiled and after the little pause, Iris pulled ellie into the house, the others quickly followed. When they entered, all of them were appalled and stunned with how much bigger the house is on the inside, archy, whom they assumed lived there, had no reaction whatsoever, she was just staring at ellie, same as maria who was staring at archy, and everyone else was staring up, down, and all around. There was a large spiral staircase to their left, a door underneath it with a crystal knob, another one next to the staircase that had carvings on the door and some cracks with a little odd greenish red thick liquid oozing through it. Rafael was the one who was looking there so he changed the direction of his eyesight toward sarah who was looking at some portraits with a huge group of girls and boys in the kind of clothing you'd see in the 20's, the girls with pearl necklaces and bonnets with their fancy hair up, gloves, all with lace lining, knee high, tightly laced boots, white dresses with pretty silk ribbons and bows. Most of the girls were in their teens and the boys wore just some simple fancy attire, not much choice of clothing for a male, the younger ones were in the corners or on the shoulders of some of the older girls, they all wore their hair out in their fancy shining curls, there were about 30 to 40 kids in that frame. Sarah stopped and walked over to it to get a closer look, she thought that the lining would be tearing and brown but...it looked brand new. She got a closer look and saw an odd girl in the corner, she was odd because she didn't show any sign of a smile meanwhile everybody else was laughing and smiling and having the time of their lives, or at least, it seemed that way. "SARAH!" She heard alice call and she ran up to hug her, "what's wrong", "I don't feel too well, this place makes me nervous." Alice wasn't too sure how to respond but just hugged her back as they walked until she realized something, "where are we going?" "To meet our ymbryne, Miss Crowiller" Archy answered bluntly then sarah pulled alice down by her arm, "I saw Iris in an old picture with tons of other people in REALLY old clothing." "...ummm...I bet it's just a really old loop, I'll ask later okay?" She nodded but still clung to her longsleeved, tattered, caked with mud dress from the horse chase. Iris and archy seemed to hear their whispering conversation, Iris looked back at them and they froze just as sarah suspiciously hid behind alice. Archy turned her head back toward where they were headed, alice brought sarah back to her side but she still trembled._ I'll get philip to look at it later…. _Sarah nodded and they continued walking. Archy was the first to make a turn around the first corner, there was another door with a crystal knob, she turned it but not before a warning, "this is our ymbryne's room, stay quiet." They all nodded with uncertainty as archy opened the door, sarah clutched alice's arm, the boy's were huddling together shaking, ellie felt confident assuming Iris would protect her, and maria had her hands behind her back.

They all had entered a dark room, it was very quiet, archy cringed at how much the door squeaked. There was a window with dark purple curtains and in a far corner was the small light of a flame, it moved over to what looked like a glass jar and was revealed to be a gas lamp, there was an old wrinkled hand that had tight sleeves that looked as though they'd suffocate her wrists turn a little clicking knob trigger and it made the flame brighter. All of them knew what it was the moment they saw it, even the little ones, it had been known to be such an old device that sarah was beginning to wonder if that photo went back farther than she predicted, _how old ARE these people and just what year IS this?! _Sarah thought while getting nervous once more. Then they were enveloped in total darkness, a snap of fingers went off, the room was fully illuminated though everyone looked around to find the gaslamp but it was nowhere to be found. There was no visible light source, it wasn't the dimmed window either, "Miss Crowiller, these are new peculiars, they also sa-" "saved you from trouble that YOU caused that had angered the peaceful villagers, you were the one who disturbed that peace and another thing-". She stopped herself in mid-sentence when she looked down then back up at her, "-archy?...where are your glasses?!" This made sarah very scared, _I've never known an adult to address a child by her nickname, unless that IS her name, but I thought no one named their child that would have a 'y' at the end, like how billy is a nickname and no one actually names their child billy...I wonder. _The woman who stood up was not only an ymbryne but also a psychic and heard the child's thoughts, however, didn't say a word to try and ease her suspicions. She looked to be a very serious woman, not only by her attire but her body language, her room, her face which showed no sign of laughter, "ARCHY! IRIS!" "Y-Y-YES MA'AM?" "I want you to go out into the hall until I summon you once more, I'd like to have a word with these children...alone!" There was a pause, "NOW!" "YES MA'AM!" The two scurried out as fast as possible. She directed their attention toward the right to show a long table with all ready set tea with assorted cakes and cookies, the boys among the group started grunting and looked away as if disgusted while the girls ran over to the fine white seats, though, already knowing the woman for only less than 10 minutes, knew she wouldn't be pleased with muddy ruffians on her new looking nice white chairs. "Oh, why it's quite all right, I'll personally clean them later, sit sit…, that includes you young men as well, if you have any 'manly' pride in you that is. Only REAL men eat strawberry shortcake and chocolate chip cookies." She winked at them with a smile, they smiled but then they puffed out their chests as if they had a six -pack to show off and sat down to eat their shortcakes like MEN, all the girls were thinking this and giggled. "So tell me, what precisely brings you here, forgive my manners, your questions should come first as being guests…" no one was brave enough to answer so they made the sign with their hands to tell her to "you do it". She moved some loose hair to behind her ears and sighed then she pointed a finger at maria and it seemed as though she was struck with something. "We were being chased by nazi's and heard about there being a loop here that we could escape from ours, since it was a bad one, we leaped over the cliff with our peculiar horses and found ourselves on this island and found archy terrorizing a village, when they caught her and started hurting her, we jumped out of the bushes and accidently brought her back to what we assume is her home….why did I just say that?!" Everyone looked at her accusingly as though she had given away their crime in a police interrogation, miss crowiller giggled, maria looked at her with a glare. "I apologize, I should of told you, I can read minds as well as make people tell the truth, with the wick of my finger I can make ANYone speak though only the truth. Again, my apologies, miss...reizend? That's your maiden name?" "Why, is it something bad?" ellie asked, miss crowiller giggled while maria blushed hoping the name wouldn't be translated, knowing german, spanish, english, and french, and many more, she was a little embarrassed. "It means charming and lovely, which, clearly, you are." She blushed again but that face quickly faded when she pulled out her right arm which had already been changed into a chainsaw, a close up of it showed the perfect reflection of miss crowiller like clean new pure steel, the others gasped at how rash she was being after even a compliment. The kind mood had gone from fun and happy to deadly cold and penetratingly frightening, though, miss crowiller was still unfazed, shocking everyone else. "MARY! Por favor ... mantener la calma, lo que ha hecho nada malo! " Rafael pleaded with her to stay cool, though confused as to why she was so steamed. "Esto ... hag ... les dijo a todos que mi apellido, no importa lo cerca que cualquiera de nosotros son, nunca me doy mis secretos, no importa cuán pequeño!" She had told him how embarrassed she was that the old hag had told everyone her last name's meaning, to her even the tiniest secrets were fragile as a china plate, already in mid-air, inches from the ground with it's inevitable fate of a crash. Everyone's mouth agape each started to close each others one by one as though a domino reaction when miss crowiller got up and out of her chair, maria, hoping she didn't speak spanish, looked to rafael, "Ella incluso usó sus poderes en mí, ¿cómo me perdono a alguien así, ese pequeño". Rafael shrugged while the others just wanted to scoot out of their chairs and escape the awkward scene. Miss Crowiller had made it all around the table and finally reached maria who had turned to face her with a glare then she patted her head, they all got out of their chairs now and started to back away from the scene that they had a feeling was bout to get rather bloody. Maria's hand turned back to normal, shocking the others, and then as if nothing had happened, she calmly walked back to her seat and put the handkerchief on her lap and with great patience, told everyone to sit back down and she would explain all.


	4. Chapter 4 mystery house

"Now you see, let me start off with, I come in peace. As you all may have guessed, I am the ymbryne who watches over the peculiars of this loop, my children." Now that miss crowiller made the first move, everybody else joined in. "What year does this loop take place?" She paused hesitant about the response but answered honestly. "1923, July 9th" "how long has it been 1923?" Ellie asked curiously. "91 years." "Mind my manners but...how old might _you_ be, Miss Crowiller?" Alice asked though knowing it was rude to ask a lady her age. "217. Now then...how old are all of you?" She understood the rudeness of alice and got a little cocky with some quick payback. "64" said alice, "67" maria added, "31! 33!" Ellie and sarah proudly remarked, "42" rafael sheepishly said, "41, and I'm 39…" Alexander and philip finished. "How old were you when you first entered a loop?" They all paused but responded in the same order

"16"

"15"

"5"

"7"

"12"

"10"

"9"

"And where does your loop start?" "1943, we were living peacefully in our old village until the war started." Alice began. "Those of us who still had parents that chose to allow their children to continue living in their household, were taken away, we were all given stars to wear on our clothes due to our religion." "You're jewish aren't you." They all practically fell out of their seats with fright. "A-are you guys...mean?" Ellie asked, "are you all with..._them_, are you going to be mean to us?" Sarah finished with tremble and tears welling up as bad memories came back. Alice and Miss Crowiller heard her thoughts, alice jumped back, _y-you can hear...y-y-you're a telepath? _She nodded but alice didn't know how to react. She pushed some loose hair to behind her ear and fixed her posture, "now anyway...I'm aware this is a most troublesome time for all of you but if you seek safety then I can offer it to you and you may stay here as long as you desire. I personally would prefer it if you stayed, I hate the feeling that I might of sent away many young peculiars who would need help and possibly training, if accepted of course. So...do you take my offer?" Sarah, ellie, alice, and rafael nodded slowly with a small smile, philip and alexander ran to mary to hide behind her she had the look of mistrust and anger. "Well then...let me show all of you to your rooms." With that she started toward the door then turned to look behind and saw the non-moving children. "What? Come along now, nothing to be afraid of…" she grabbed the crystal knob and turned, archy and iris fell down, Miss Crowiller looked down in annoyance with a sigh, she ushered the two girls to their rooms which were upstairs on the second floor of the spiral staircase. All the other kids got into one big group and quickly followed behind the mistress, maria and the little ones by her side, went out last still suspicious. The door creepily slammed behind them.

They started up the staircase that was surrounded by portraits, it was nice at first but then something changed as they got further up. No one noticed; to them, the pictures didn't change at all, it was the same 40+ kids and teens that sarah had first spotted, however, according to sarah and alexander and philip, nothing was right. "_Mary! I need you to put me on your shoulders! Fast, it's very important!" _Sarah hissed, mary, being as paranoid as she is, decided maybe sarah could prove her right and did so. Every story they passed, the pictures got more alarming, sarah's face changed according to the differences she'd spot. "Whaddaya see?" "_shhh! I'll tell 'ya later…". _Maria looked down in slight disappointment that she couldn't get her news immediately. Alexander started getting weirded out, same as philip, _"Doesn't this seem a little..odd?" _Alexander whispered with an elbow nudge, _"I know what you mean...I thought this was only a two stories..three at max! But this looks like it goes on forever…". "If you want to be a little more logical then.., depending on our height, then it's probably only 4 to 5 levels." _Philip tried to console. Not a one of them could say that they were completely comfortable to live in a house such as this. Miss Crowiller stopped at the fourth floor, that was when the rain that archy had predicted started. "I shall escort you all to your rooms, I recommend staying inside."

* * *

**Is 217 too old, I'm curious...**


	5. Chapter 5 mystery rooms

She showed alice and rafael to their rooms first, it was interesting and got maria questioning the old hag once again. Alice's room had a light green carpet, green thick covers on her bed, she had one of the rooms with a balcony, a fine dark brown wooden dresser, all ready filled with clothes, _strange…_, in fact...almost half of the whole room was wooden; her dresser, her desk, the columns that lead to the blue and white cover above her bed, there was even a scent of forest that filled the bedroom. Maria glared. Rafael had blue walls and dark blue carpet, his wooden bed had wavy carvings, even a long fish tank that outlined almost his entire room, she said it glowed at night and lit up the room with a soothing blue shine. Sarah's room was very predictable; Pink walls, polka dotted black and pink blanket, nice wooden floor, white dresser, a gaslamp on the dresser in case of fear of the darkness,_I guess the old hag was wanting to play it safe with the kids ... oy ve ..._Alexander's room had plain gray walls and a shiny, nice, and new-looking wooden floor, the bed was twin-size and white, dresser was white and wooden. Maria looked bored and surprised, especially when she saw alexander smile with excitement and run into his new room happily and ecstatic. Next came philip's room was the exact opposite, black walls, the same wooden floor, gray dresser, black bed. Ellies room, wasn't the kind of room to be expected for a little girl; black and red walls, jet black bed with a creepy red wooden bed frame, she had the room with the other balcony, it had black curtains, by her bed was a wooden black desk with white drawers. The entire room was completely dark and gave anyone who passed it an uneasy feeling, ellie eagerly ran into her new room and closed the door which surprised maria very much so, there was a loud strike of lightning, while it flashed, it seemed as though the whole house was pitch black and the only light came from the inside of ellie's room brighter than the sun almost and only for a second. The two decided to ignore it as maria was lead down the hallway further and passed through a large doorway with no door. _She better not be leading me to the crummy part of the house or I'll- _"Here we are!" She sang, "Miss…-" Mary was about ready to form another chainsaw if she would say her last name, "-Maria…, I trust you'll find this room to your liking." The two walked in and the minute maria turned her gaze, there was a fast slam and miss crowiller was gone like a ghost, mary looked fearful but then turned in a circle to see the whole room and soak it in. navy blue walls, black bed, two small circle windows but still had long 3 layered thick velvet red curtains, if you pulled them over the windows the room would be completely dark and private, the door was a thick light brown wooden door, the knob seemed to be a very worn brass and had 5 different locks. A very simple room it was, there was a lot to be confused about about, like wether Miss Crowiller could andor should be trusted, what happened to this loop for there to be a change-over it'd mean that something tragic would happen at the end of the day, that's only normal. Something about this one seemed different like the kind that would give a person a truly nauseous feeling in the pit of their stomach, after time it would eventually devour you if you stayed too long. There was another flash, the room was plunged into complete darkness while this happened, to mary it felt as though the bedroom had gone under a change. The rain was heavy and loud then she turned to look at her bed, having an odd feeling that she should and there, on her bed, stood an old photo of maria, her mother, and her father. She barely remembered them and so, she knew who would help her with this, alexander and philip. Maria dashed out of her room and into the previously creepy hallway to find an actual calm surrounding and began the way she'd come. Passing silent room by silent room she tried to remember which was which while wishing for alice to be by her side and read the minds of each of them to tell who's rooms everyone was in. Holding the photo in her hand that was beginning to shake, she chose not to wake the ones that didn't need to be awakened and got on her hands and knees and began crawling on the floor in the hallway, checking underneath the doors while trying to remember the interior of each room. _All of their rooms were clearly based on their personalities and peculiarities meaning that the old hag must've known we were coming and got the rooms all set up, I bet she was watching us from the moment we got on the island…. _Maria started going faster down the hall, getting more frustrated, fueled with anger finally seemed to have the right spot, until…. She heard a creak come from behind her that got louder slowly as the assumed door got wider, maria didn't speak or move, she was just frozen wondering if Crowiller was there. "My room's gonna be scary at night...can I sleep with you mary?" It was the voice an adorable little...31 year old...girl, ellie. Mary turned around, got up, walked toward ellie and gave her a loving smile, "how about instead...when night comes along, we'll get philip and alexander to come with us and explore the house to see if we can find anything interesting…-" "-AND sarah!" "That's right, she wanted to come to, didn't she?" Ellie nodded, maria looked both ways then went to open the door beside her but ellie grabbed her arm and yanked it down, though maria was not surprised but a little annoyed. "What was that for?!" "That's rafael's room, you shouldn't bug him, I can tell he's grumpy." "How come?" Ellie stayed quiet and maria just crashed to the ground to peer under the door and check, there, as ellie said, was rafael pacing back and forth. Only his feet were visible, "¿Por qué María no me dijo acerca de sus nuevas capacidades? ¿No soy su amiga más íntima de lo demás? ", mary slapped her forehead. Ellie was slightly confused but not at all shocked, rafael was always very sensitive, even though most couldn't tell what he'd said, his expressions told the rest, she expected mary to fill her in. Mary lifted herself to her knees and looked at ellie who was obviously lost but still had the confidence to tell her that he wasn't right, "he's frustrated with himself because I hadn't told him that my capabilities had grown and changed, since I'm the closest to him, even though I hadn't told any of you guys!" She began pacing back and forth in the same pattern as rafael, unbeknownst to her seeing as the door blocked the field of vision. Ellie was on the ground now with her head to the floor and eyes toward the doors as she slowly crawled away from maria. "THERE, FOUND IT!" She exclaimed, maria turned around to see ellie opening a door, she was a little nervous about just going in but decided to follow ellie. "Alexander!" Maria tilted her head in confusion, he was staring at the wall, though actually he was peering through a crack, both ellie and maria were able to hear a voice from the other side which they assumed was philip. Ellie just barged into the room before maria had the chance to grab her dress and stop her, "HEY alexander! We need you and philip for something!" Maria slapped her forehead again, _so much for staying quiet! _"Whaddaya need us for, elliot?" She stomped her foot, "IT'S ELLIE! AND YOU KNOW THAT!" She yelled at the voice from the other room, this time maria managed to cup her mouth so she couldn't yell anymore. They all heard footsteps coming, assuming it was miss crowiller, maria grabbed ellie and leaped into alexander's room and shut the door.


	6. Chapter 6 An attempt toward freedom

Maria was the one who chose to look out the keyhole on her hands and knees to see who'd pass. It was archy and she had her glasses back on and she was holding a floating leash with heavy and loud stomping from right behind her. _Her damned hollow! It might be the old hag who sent her up here for spying on anyone tryin' to escape! _Just then, she heard the hard footsteps stop as well as archy, the leash moved in closer to the door and a long, slimy tentacle shot through the keyhole and hit maria in the forehead, she shrieked and jumped back. Accidently, she morphed her right hand into a long blade and jabbed the tentacle where she had guessed it was. There was the screeching noise and the door crashed down as something big and heavy leaped onto maria, "AAAAAH! RECIBIR ESTA MIERDA DAMNED MALDITO MONSTRUO DE MIERDA DE LA NATURALEZA DE MÍ! She cussed in spanish so the little ones wouldn't understand, though the cry was loud enough for rafael to hear. He barged into the room, pushing archy out of the way to see maria being held down by some invisible creature as she had said in the only language he understood. "MARIA, ¿Estás bien?!" "COMO HE DICHO ANTES, RECIBIR ESTA COSA DE MÍ! NO QUIERO SER EATE- " The creature licked her cheek and she shrieked. Rafael couldn't see it, neither could maria or anyone else but she could feel it's weight and how it would break her ribs if it was on much longer as her face began to change color from the lack of oxygen. Ellie grabbed one of the lamps and shined it on maria so rafael could see the shadow. He dove toward it and managed to wrestle it to the ground, after finally putting it in a headlock and choking it the same way it did to maria, archy called it back. "SPENCER! GET OVER HERE, YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH!" She put two fingers in her mouth and blew but no sound could be heard until the hollow 'pet' started wailing in agony from what they guessed was a sound only they could hear. Maria had rafael and ellie help her up, she brushed herself off then glared at archy who gave a very serious look back that said she didn't care. She stormed out of the room and down the hall to her room as she gathered the photo's from the bed and went to find the stairs which was harder than she thought,_ it was right at the end, I'm certain of it! _She found the banister but no stairs, rafael ran out of the room which confused maria since she was sure that she was at the end of the hall. He grabbed her arm and he had a worried gaze, maria was a little shocked but just ignored it as she yanked herself out of his grasp and put her hands on the banister and looked down to see 4 stories of huge, intimidating height. _I'm going to die if I try this but…._ "POR FAVOR, MARY! NO LO HAGAS!" "POR FAVOR...SHUT UP, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!" Alice was able to hear her thoughts from all the way down the hall and rushed out of the room to see, what looked like, a suicide attempt by mary. Mary, then, had a surprising smirk as she scanned all around below her.

Each level had a banister perimeter to keep anyone from falling into the 'pit'. The spiral staircase was right against the upper right corner but not one level had an opening to it, people would have to climb over their designated banister to get to the stairs safely. Some levels were 'uneven', some too inward, some too outward but more rectangular, and it appeared to be that there were some very long wooden planks that extended farther than most could guess probably for 'delivery' between the levels if the kids wanted to go the easier route with messages and objects. _This really IS a jail...gettin' outta here! _And with that…, she jumped. Rafael ran over to try and catch her but only got her thick sweater with the star on it that had labeled her for so long. Everyone ran over to where rafael was just to see maria hopping and flipping like a pro gymnast from banister to plank to stair ledge to laundry line that she accidently noticed as everyone "awed" and "oo'd". Eventually at the second floor, there was no longer any real room to hop on anything and she was falling fast so, without thinking, her arm turned into a huge umbrella and she floated down safely (Mary Poppins reference NOT intended). There was a tiny sigh of relief when she made touch down, her arm reverted back to normal then...there was a small cheer from an unfamiliar voice. There were more and it got louder and louder until it sounded like a whole stadium cheering, when maria looked up...it was a huge group of kids, all at the edges of their banisters for their level. They consisted of teens and little kids. Some photo's fell from her floor, she looked down at herself to see if her assumption was correct. It was indeed. Underneath her navy blue wool sweater, which rafael had snatched, was a brown, tight, long sleeve, button up high neck shirt that flared out in lace at her hips which then led to her long thick, dark gray, plaid, wool, ankle skirt with mud splatters, light brown stockings and over sized clunky tightly buckled shoes. Because the shoes were two sizes too large, they made a clunking sound wherever she walked, not to mention the creaky floorboards.

She hadn't paid much attention to every detail of the house but...it seemed like a creative play/working house: There were several dumbwaiters on each wall, plenty of random ropes hanging down high and low but didn't go into the hallways or doorways, they were completely out of people's way, the railing for the stairs was metal, most likely because of certain peculiarities that the other kids might have, so others could stick to it's friction with barefeet and hands. There were clothing lines, you could even see some washtubs for the clothes close to some of the many doors there were on the upper levels. If you looked up higher, you'd see, what appears to be small crates attached to some of the ziplines on a wheel to be sent down or across. There was even a 'pulley' system for baskets and other such things. The whole place just seemed like a cluttered mess; papers in stacks on ledges, random signs and posters that had no meaning and more piles of paper, and shelves were all coated in a thin layer of dust. It seemed to be that no one had any allergies. There were no signs of any cleaning supplies any where near, looking straight up, the ceiling wasn't what she had expected. A big glass dome, perfectly clean and see through, though the clouds loomed over us, it still lit the house and that was when she had noticed there being no lights other than gas lamps and candles. _THAT must get annoying. _Maria thought. "C'MON DOWN, IT'S FINE!" She looked around for the old hag and surprisingly, was nowhere to be seen, but then there were giggles. Maria spun around frantically to see where they were coming from until, there was the sound of a creaking door and more laughter came from it. _The other kids must be in the dumbwaiters_, just then, alice hopped down from behind her with a rough landing and a thump, "OW!" "Alice! Tell me, what's going on up there?" She pointed toward rafael and ellie since they were farthest toward the front. Alice was just speechless with the view, maria was growing impatient and shook her by her arms. "WHAT, WHAT?!" "Tell me, what went on up there after I jumped?" "Rafael thought you were dead, same as ellie, they lowered their heads as if paying their respects, alexander's in his room same as sarah." "What about philip?" "Same." She pouted believing not many people cared wether she was dead or not. "Was the hag up there?" "No, whaddaya got against her anyhow?" She gave her the same face ellie had given archy when she entered the house. Alice chose to change the subject when she noticed multiple doors on all sides of them accept one, that stood out and was right down the hall in front of them, there was a window on the door and it revealed rain. _IT'S THE WAY OUT! _Alice heard maria's thoughts as she headed toward the door, just then, ellie crashed to the ground the exact same way as alice and got up rubbing her tush, sarah came down from the dumbwaiter. The three of them looked at maria while she was storming out, neither ellie, sarah, nor alice intended to stop her.


	7. Chapter 7 The man in shadows

She opened the door to see pouring rain and walked out onto the porch, slamming the door behind her. The stairs down creaked suspiciously as maria went down, on the second step, the wood came out from under her. The single stair being 10 feet in length and only 1 foot in width, maria had no cushion from her wool sweater to fall through nicely, instead, she fell through rather medium speed and her tight fitting shirt wasn't too helpful in falling through the very hard frictiony steps. Underneath the shirt she'd probably have scrapes but there wasn't much time to worry about that now. The place she had fallen into wasn't too 'friendly': Uneven stoned walls covered with slimy moss at the bottom and drenched with what she assumed was rain water. The only light shining through was that of the step she had came down from and it revealed only about 7 to 8 feet around her where many puddles were visible, outlined in moss and mud, you could barely make out any facial features other than your nose, ears, and mouth if you were to look into it. After getting up, she brushed herself off as much as she could but then, the sound of shackles was close by, it was coming from the dark that could easily hide anything because of how creepily black it was. Maria jumped with fright and as an accidental reflex, her arm turned into an axe. There was a scream that came not long after, her hand changed back when she fell to her knees covering her ears because of the painful screech, the shackles got louder. It appeared that there was more than one, they all shaked at different times from different places. _There must be about 20 of these things! Are they hollows or something else? _Just then, maria felt a huge slimy, sticky tentacle with sharp teeth all along it's edges latch onto her leg, the same one that already had the large scabbie gash. The wound had reopened as the tentacle wrapped itself around both her leg and wound much tighter than the first creature had. She toppled to the ground into one of the big puddles and started pulling her leg away from the beast, that didn't help. It held on even tighter and the blood flow to her leg was beginning to diminish as it started to turn blue. Her arm changed into a bludgeoning spiked bat, the thing was to her right, the shadow was very big indicating that it was low to the ground. Wanting to be exact on bashing it's head to a pulp, she put her hand close to the tentacle and moved it forward toward the dark to find out how long it was and where the head was. Another tentacle grabbed her hand and, without a second thought, morphed into an axe and sliced the creatures tentacles and, most likely, a part of it's head since a terrible wail came from it almost immediately. The tentacle holding her leg had been cut from it's source but remained stuck to her skin, there was a very small trickle of blood, only about two or three streams rained down her ankle. _If I peel this thing off I could very well bleed out. _She decided to leave it be but then there were more loud chains of shackles, her arm morphed into the spiked bat and she put on her war face. _How come no one's heard me?!...ALICE! ALICE CAN'T 'YA HEAR ME?! I THINK I'M IN THE BASEMENT! _Maria walked a little more forward, "anyone want some more?" She held up the shining weapon close to her face so whatever was in the shadows, they'd at least be able to see it. But then, tripping on one of the stones that was randomly uprooted and fell face forward, at the edge of the shadows was when something odd happened. A, what appeared to be, a male, human hand reached out to her and brought up her chin, she jumped back to the wall in surprise and fright. "Easy now, I'm not here to pick a fight, in fact, I require assistance and I believe you are in need yourself…" a brooding and intimidating voice spoke, maria gave a scared face but which then turned to annoyance and frustration. "Huh?...the shackles stopped rattling." "Because I had told them to." His voice was filled with confidence and wasn't gonna budge any time soon, it had the ring of both cocky and, assumingly, stubborn toward the wrong reaction, she couldn't tell which was which. There was the single view of the tip of his shoe and no absolute movement after that, he just seemed to negotiate, still, emotionless, scaring maria a little. "Put down your weapons, maria the lovely-" she glared, about ready to slice his unseeable head right off. "-Oh my, pardon me, I just happen to have sharp ears, the...'old hag' does talk rather loudly, no? I bet you find this place,...unsettling…,creepy…, unnerving. I can understand why, not only the strange scenery but the simple well known fact of your uneasy balance due to a certain… 'injury' that you established not long ago and earlier this morning." She looked back down at her limp, bloody, and tentacle covered leg which seemed to be oozing a sort of black liquid. "How could you possibly-" "-know...everything: Maria Reizend, 5'5, orphan, jewish, chased out of your home by 'the monsters', peculiarity; Shape-shifting body parts. Only child and..._former_ parents-" "-ENOUGH!" Her right arm accidently extended by 6 feet straight toward the, still motionless, man. "Let's not be hasty, this is a 'peace-loving' house, at the moment it feels like some asylum to you….I know MUCH more than you think, you are under your own illusion that you're just like your peculiar friends…, you can't see hollowgasts, you have your own power that can either stay calm or lash out, becoming unsta-...oh, my apologies, I was thinking about YOU...not your friends. My sincerest apologies once again, miss...mary." He put his hand quickly to her extended axe and it shot back to her long sleeve and turned back into her regular hand again. Her anger had subsided and was replaced with astonishment and surprise, she focused on her left side, turning her other hand back to normal. The mysterious man clapped his hands in applause, "good work, now...if that power can be harnessed, I could help you with controlling it and using it properly for much better purposes rather than killing me, all the hollows in this room, and the 'old hag'. Doesn't that sound much better?" She looked down, rubbed her arm nervously then turned around slowly to face the small light which shined down on her from where she had fallen. "Are...you a-" "-wight, well I suppose you could say that…". She turned around, arms now stubbornly crossed, "are you or aren't you?!" "Why yes indeed, I am a wight, BUT I am not the bad guy here...though that's everybody's excuse in this house, not helping that paranoia 'ya got there huh?" Maria scowled and held onto her left wrist, ready to attack in case of any 'funny business' but then, he showed his arm and it's revelation shocked maria. "White sleeve...does that mean….show yourself!" He stepped forward but only a little to leave his left foot in the still darkness, it showed a white, long sleeve, simple loose dress for both men and females, there was nothing particularly special about it though it did remind her of something…. "Archy…" "quite. Miss...archy, you call her-" "-that's what the old hag calls her to, I noticed ellie shaking a little when she called her that but we all assumed that it just must simply be her real name." "That's something you're very wrong about." Maria stepped back nervously and every word that came from his mouth made her think twice about whatever he'd said. Just then, the light above her grew brighter and the heavy sound of rain ceased, "MARYYYYY, C'MON, WHERE'D 'YA GO?" Alice and sarah's voices rang, there were the sound of steps headed toward the porch and closer to the stairs she'd fallen through, she walked a little closer to the shadows and farther away from the light of the broken step. _"Why do I not want to be found?" _She whispered to herself, just loud enough for the man to hear. _"Because you're worried that you'll be judged for being in a place that you assume you shouldn't." _The man was given another glare. Her annoyed face faded when she heard rafael, though it was in spanish, she still thought his words were both simple but sweet, she walked over to the wall and though his face was hidden, he still cocked an eyebrow wondering what the girl might be planning. Maria focused on her hands, it took awhile but they eventually turned into suction cups, she put them to the wall and tried to lift her body off the ground but, not only was the wall too slippery but while she was in the air it lasted about 2 seconds before she fell into a puddle below her. "No need to worry, a pathway can be made for you-" he spoke a few words but it sounded too inhumane to be any real language that she had ever heard, there was the sound of shackles again only this time, it seemed to be getting quieter, assuming some movement had taken place. "I know you may not be able to see but I assure you, there is a pathway, as long as you don't use your powers you're safe. I've told them not to harm you in any way, shape, or form, otherwise they'd have to answer to me." She looked down at her, now, blue leg. "NO WAY! I'm not going into that pit of death!" "It's either, stay here to starve, or go up there and take a chance, believe me, I certainly wouldn't let someone I need die." She looked up at the ceiling and the man simply knew that she'd come back. "How big is this room?" "About 40 by 60 feet, including the porch above. Now then, you may come back to visit if you wish and in return I can easily help you with your peculiar capabilities. The pathway remains here just as before, keep your arms straight in front of you when walking in the dark, at the end is a staircase on the wall so you'll only bump into it as opposed to tripping and hurting your wounded leg further." She gave him an accusing look but then faded once again to her emotionless face as she reluctantly and slowly walked into the darkness. Not long after there was the sound of creaking stairs, "see 'ya later!" He sang, maria looked back with suspicion and curiosity.


	8. Chapter 8 hollow injury

The stairway ended just below the ceiling of the dark room, being at the top, maria looked up to see the floorboards to the main level and light was shining through. The sound of multiple footsteps was coming closer. They were small and sounded barefoot but were being lead by hard heavy heels clicking on the ground, _"the old hag…". _Maria hissed, she decided to wait a little while for the steps to stop until then, she'd feel around the surface for a handle of some sort. When the feet stopped, it was time to get out but before she left, there was just the eery feel that everyone was watching her though it couldn't be assured due to the lack of light there still was the feeling that they're watching.

Maria pushed with her back to lift the boards, turns out it was more of a sewer grate that had to be lifted THEN slid to the side. She hopped out of the hole and found herself under a table, her left leg came out not long after but, at this point, the right one was totally numb. Afraid to look at the damage, she lowered her skirt which was soaked in murky rainwater and slimy mud. More footsteps came just as maria had crawled out from under the table, the sound of the door swung open and a small armada of heavy, clunky, wet shoes came tumbling in. In perfect line of sight, she quickly pushed the door to the basement closed and put the tablecloth down, it was rafael, ellie, alice, and sarah.

"Maybe she came back here." Sarah suggested.

"No, I KNOW she came back here." Alice stated. The others remained silent while rafael kept looking around frantically until he laid eyes on a muddy, soaking wet, and limping girl.

"MARIA!" Rafael exclaimed, everyone turned their heads to see their friend dirty and bloody, their happy faces turned to concerned. Maria looked up at them and struggled to smile, her face covered in dirt, when she saw their worried faces she tried to reassure them that she's fine. She stood up straight, forcing her posture and was going to walk over to them, taking one step forward was no big deal but, forgetting that she even had a leg from how numb it was, she put all her weight on the other in order to move closer. She crashed to the ground, all of their faces turned to horror. The large thump rang throughout the house no matter how huge it was, rafael ran to her and not long after came the sound of many dumbwaiters coming down, the sound of a few ziplines co-erced, more ropes were being lowered, and the sound of grinding rails was coming forth. Before the two became surrounded by other children, alice, ellie and sarah dashed over to maria and rafael. "MARY! MARY SPEAK TO ME!" Alice begged. "Ich kann nicht das Gefühl, mein Bein, aber ich wette, es tut sehr weh." Only ellie and sarah were full blooded germans and spoke the language fluently, they looked to alice who just had a confused look, same as rafael. "She's in a daze, barely conscious, she said; 'I can't feel my leg but I bet it hurts a lot.'" Now alice understood but none of them could explain it to rafael. Now a huge bunch of yet-to-be-seen kids crowded all around maria and rafael, before alice became engulfed, sarah and ellie worked hard to shove her forward in front of the huge crowd. She got on her knees beside maria and lifted her skirt, but just to her knees. Everyone flinched and "ew'd", some covered their eyes at the grotesque sight, even rafael had one eye closed. Alice was motionless and her worried face changed to serious, "I-is she gonna be ok?" "Do you think she's all right?" "Will she die?" "What do we have to do to help her?!" "She desperately needs saving!" Ellie, sarah, and alice were surprised at how much they cared for a girl they've only just met but alice was beginning to lose her train of thought, if she couldn't focus she couldn't heal. "QUIET!" Everyone took one step back and the place became completely silent, alice put her hand to maria's leg and would heal her from the knee down to make it gradual. The glow came back from under her hands as the blue started to fade...but, unfortunately….the feeling came back in her leg. Maria couldn't move any parts of her body, not even her leg(s), she was jerked awake by it and only able to move her face she shut her eyes tightly. "UUUUAAAAAA! PROCHAINE FOIS JE VOIS ARCHY, JE VAIS TUER LA PETITE SORCIÈRE!" She screamed in french, all the kids were horrified. "ALICE YOU GOTTA STOP! YOU CAN'T DO ANYMORE WITHOUT KILLING HER!" Sarah yelled in worry, alice was whipped from all the hard work, she'd never used her powers for something this big and it was just before she had made it to the tentacle, now oozing more black liquid. She wiped the sweat from her brow and stopped but knew she had to remove the tentacle, with it being severed from it's body it was now visible. She reached her hand toward it but before her hand could let alone touch it maria grabbed hers, "USTED TOQUE Y VA A SER EL ÚLTIMA MOVIMIENTO!" Rafael understood now, but alice didn't just that maria wasn't about to let her anywhere near the thing causing her pain, she turned to the kids behind her but was mostly addressing the teens in the crowd that towered over the little ones. "I'm gonna need some hot water, not too hot, a rag that can be soaked and some drinking water…-" there was a still and silent pause, "-HURRY!" Three teens separated from the rest of the group and ran into one of the dark hallways, the moon was right above the house and all around each banister for each level was an outlining of red and yellow lanterns that lit the rest of the house and hallways beautifully, stepping out to the very center of the main floor it looked like a pretty chinese festival with a crescent moon to complete the scene, though it was a tad difficult to enjoy when distracted by the bleeding girl. Maria's eyes were flickering like spazzing lights as she was about to pass out from the pain. "HEY, WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?!" "COMIIIING!" All three of the teens came in carrying the huge wooden tub of hot water, the rag was hanging on the side and one of them was holding the cup with one hand on the enormous tub. They set it down carefully right next to alice, she moved fast immediately grabbing the cloth and dunking it in the hot water, "Rafael, I need you to hold her down, she's going to squirm." She knew he wouldn't understand so she imitated the movements of her instructions and included a little sign language. He looked to maria whose eyes were starting to roll back and she had her teeth clenched as her arms started to twitch, alice got nervous and showed rafael how to hold her arms down. "EVERYONE, GET BACK OR YOU MIGHT GET HURT!" They all obeyed alice without a moments hesitation. She applied the hot, wet towel to both her skin and the tentacle. Maria nearly jumped, "ALICE STOP STOP BITTE ICH WERDE TUN, ETWAS NUR STOPP! " Sarah teared up as ellie sniffled, alice paid no mind, she knew what she was doing. Just then, one of maria's arms shot out to form a huge jagged blade that stretched far enough to slam straight into the wall across from them, the children jumped back and were now breathing heavily from their narrow escape. Everyone was sweating from the scary suspense, after a while, the tentacle hardened and alice took off the towel and maria noticed her going for it again, she reached her hand out as far as possible, tearing up and eyes tightly shut, sweat on her brow as she did her best to get up, grab alice and punch her. Rafael got a better grip on her arms and shoulders now and was shoved back to the ground. "Estoy mary siento que estoy tan tan mal por esto ... perdóname ... ALICE PRISA!" Rafael yelled at her, she guessed it was a sign for 'move it'. The minute alice laid a finger on it, maria passed out. With that, alice ripped the tentacle off and what was left, scared everybody to death….


	9. Chapter 9 Training Mishap

"AH! Wha-wha-what the…?" It was early afternoon in maria's room, still barely able to move she was lying in her bed and it seemed that the covers were a whole lot puffier and softer, she shot up from the bed and was paralyzed with pain causing her to fall to the ground. It revealed the gauze heavily wrapped around from her ankle to her knee. Her whole torso was wrapped very tightly with gauze also and her arms were covered with buckled restraints all along from shoulder to wrists and fingers. Though her hands could move freely, she tried to cut them off by morphing them into knives...it didn't work. "What's up with these things?!" She had to yank herself up by the bed and started toward the door. There were a few giggles behind it, making maria suspicious. Upon opening the door, maria was immediately given a warm and hard hug, making her yelp in pain. "Rafael?...philip and alexander?!" The three were starting to half choke her, she was beginning to get grumpy and elbowed rafael's shoulder, causing him to get dizzy as he drowsily backed away, alexander and philip looked up at her same as her looking down at them with an annoyed glare. They backed away silently, "Oh c'mon give the boys' some credit, they're trying to be helpful….are 'ya still mad?" Maria moved her arms closer to her face and was ready to turn them into giant axes but once again, it didn't work. "What ARE these things?!" "It's for your own good...and ours." She looked down at her arms to see that on her right, there was more gauze underneath the buckles, _so that WASN'T a dream! Maybe that guy can hel-. _She cut off her own thoughts and ran back into her room to shut the door with the sound of a click. Alice ran to the door, "MARY WHAT'RE YOU PLANNING?!" Not a moment after she finished did maria come out. She had on dark brown pants, high boots (loose, of course), corset, a white skin tight and loose puffy sleeves ending at the elbow button up shirt and her navy blue wool sweater that rafael had put on her bed probably last night. Without any time to react, maria jumped off the banister again, rafael was a little slow to the punch to catch maria but once he got to the edge, he saw her sliding down the railing to the spiral stairs. As she went down all the kids and teens ran out of their rooms to see that maria was ok and they cheered to see her not dead or trying to kill anybody. When she made it to the ground, hats were being thrown into the air for joyous celebrations then she ducked into the hallway where the 'healing' went down and saw the table again. Looking under, the small and barely visible entrance outline met with maria's eyes, she quickly looked behind her to check that she was alone and slowly slid open the heavy lid. She hopped down through it fast, pulling the hatch along with her, closing it instantly. It was completely pitch black, _guess they must'a fixed the stairs…. _Maria thought anxiously. A small dim light came on toward the corner of the vast room and yet again the nervous feeling came back, the inhumane noise came from the same area as the sound of 20 or more shackles moved away. "Ah, maria! Welcome back, I had a feeling you'd return." The man hummed a tune, maria recognized it almost immediately, "NUTCRACKER! That's one of my-" "-favorites? Come, come, a straight diagonal path was made, I am at the corner to your left." _He must see like a bat! _Maria limped down the stairs at a steady pace. "And you said diagonal on my left…?" "Why yes indeed." She walked down while the man continued to hum, while getting closer, the 'corner' seemed to have more description than from the stairs. There was a counter, some seats, a few shelves behind and it looked like the typical bar you'd see at a wing restaurant only everything was bright white and had the odd vibe of an operating room with a mad scientist. The man was nowhere to be seen, maria sat down but very slowly. "In a bit of pain, I see." He hopped up from behind the counter making maria jump a little from her seat. Coming back down, she hit her knee, "understatement by a long shot…". She looked up to see the man's face and whole body, it wasn't particularly shocking, appeared to be around 6 feet, thin, white, with a comb-over of light brown hair, seemed to be in maybe his 40's. He had the face of someone very patient but also the smile of a creepy clown with the odd personality to match. "Lay your arms on the table, you're in a bit of a jam, yes?" Maria looked away giving off an annoyed expression and regrettably brought her arms up, "roll up the sleeves if you want the whole thing to detach, you'd like your powers not be restrained same as me." She pulled up her sleeves and started fidgeting with the buckles that wouldn't budge to give it one last shot. Giving up, she faced him again. "So how're 'ya gonna get these things off?" The man ducked under the table and brought up a few vials and various cutting tools, "would you prefer acid or a jagged knife to get these things off?" "Knife." She answered bluntly. "Knife it is…, arm up!" Maria lifted her arm up high and the man sliced the buckles all in one strike and quickly did the same with the other arm. By accident, they morphed into huge cleavers almost twice her height, the hollows behind her screeched all at the same time. Maria fell out of her chair when her hands changed back and put them over her ears while the terrible noise continued, the man didn't do anything even though maria couldn't tell, focusing on the awful sound. Then for a split second, a _shing_ sound occurred, the kind you'd hear from a sword being scratched or taken out of it's sheath, the horrible noises stopped. Maria slowly got up with a struggle from her limp leg and saw her hands were drenched in blood, feeling a little woozy, sat back down across from the man who didn't have a spot on him. "Now then, were you scared or mad?" The man asked smoothly, maria nearly fell out of her chair again from the shock, her mouth agape. He pulled out a warm damp cloth and threw it at her still face, snapping her out of whatever spell she was under. After she wiped her face, she looked at the rag and saw it was covered in both black liquid and blood, looking back up at the smiling man a revelation came to her but it wasn't something she wanted to admit. "...I was only a little tiny bit -" "-frightened, yes I can see why, and now I know for certain. You're capabilities coerce with your emotions. If you can control them then you can control your power. 'Tis a fine capability you have and a very unique one at that." Maria didn't exactly know how to react until, it seemed that once again he had read her thoughts when he pulled a beaded string that lead up to the unseeable ceiling. A bright light switched on and the sight made maria nearly faint. She stood up but then quickly turned away unable to face what had just occurred, the man forcefully took her by the ear and turned her head to make her look at the destruction. All of the ground below them was splattered in black liquid and dark red blood, broken shackles and random beastly limbs sprawled across the floor from end to end, with the beings all sliced to bits, their only solid remains were visible. Maria's face showed true terror, she wanted to scream on the verge of tears but then she noticed two quivering shackles in the far corner of the large room right across from the river blood and guts. "See this?...THIS is your power!" With fright still glued to her face, she spun around and in but a fraction of a second, an axe and sword were at the man's neck, she was sweating then the man began to laugh. "What's wrong? You should be PROUD of this! With proper training-" "Say another word and you're through…". Her face was deadly serious as hate burned in her eyes. "You didn't let me finish." He put both hands to the weapons and they were sent back to her sleeves and returned to normal. Maria was getting paranoid again at the fact that she had just noticed that he'd still had yet to reveal his lower half as he remained behind the counter. "There's still two left, how 'bout some target practice!" He joyfully sang, she turned around in frustration and looked straight into his cold white eyes. "OR how 'bout we test what else my hands can turn into…". She focused with difficulty as her right hand progressively formed into a mop, the man was surprised and, trying to remain as calm as possible, put her hand to the ground and started toward the stairs, he didn't bother to stop her but when she made it to the stairs and gave him her last look, "come back any time, if you want any help!" He sang once again then went back to humming Nutcracker. Maria was a little intimidated and ran up the stairs as fast as she could. She crawled out from under the table after she closed the lid.


	10. Chapter 10 room arrest

Maria got up but then looked down to see...a crow. "Uh oh." The crow looked back at her and her gauze and flew up to start pecking angrily at maria's head. "OW OW OW STOP THAT! OW!" She yelled impatiently while flailing her arms about in an attempt to get her off, eventually the bird stopped and flew into the hallway across, maria was dumbfounded but then limped out of her hallway and into the center of the main floor, the whole place seemed deserted, _man I bet when the old hag puts her foot down it must start an earthquake, I can see why they'd hide…_ . The crow walked back in without a word and went straight toward maria who just had a chill go down her spine, she folded her arms and gave a disappointed glare. "You were downstairs with 'the odd man' weren't you?" Maria gulped, she was hunched over to hold her leg but then let go, stood up straight and looked her in the eye to try and seem fearless as she was completely honest with her (partially). "What's it to 'ya?!" "On my flight back here after I had finished patrolling, I'd heard the distinct screech of many many hollows all at once. I was very close to the house so it was easily heard, once inside which was only a few seconds after the terrible noise, there were running footsteps all in a herd trying to get to their rooms as quick as possible." Another surge of pain came over her as she toppled over but caught herself and went back to holding her leg, miss crowiller was not amused. "And how might you have acquired THAT wound, miss maria?" She asked, remembering her anger toward her last name. Maria was hesitant on honesty or...a puzzle, "I fought back." She told her calmly and took one step back and fell over, still holding her limp leg, which at this point was paralyzed but the pain was still there as it began to ache. "Ugh...why does all this crap happen to me?" "Because you brought it on yourself." She replied to her rhetorical question, bent down on one leg and gave her a pitying look to top off her pride crushing sentence, maria looked back at her with hatred. "You could go back down there and let your fate befall you quicker...or...you may stay up here and heal. Underground, under this house is an undetectable gas and when it enters the pores of your skin, like...an open wound...it'll get infected and ache and hurt even worse than when they first got it. The longer you stay down there...the worse your condition is going to be so...I'm putting you under surveillance." "Huh?" She asked, barely able to comprehend her previous sentences due to the lingering pain. "You shall be with someone at all times and they will watch over you. Like it or not, anyone in this house is a new ward, a new child, as an ymbryne I have to take care of my children, I'm not saying that you have to like me but I advise you listen to my instructions without argue." "...or...what?" She had her head laying the other way, miss crowiller got up with a serious gaze. "I don't intend on punishments, I let you come up with that on your own until then…" I'm closing off the entrance to that awful place." Maria glared impatiently, about ready to kill the bird. Just then she looked at one of the dumbwaiters, "ARCHY!" She hopped right out and ran to the 'old hag'. "I'd like you to watch over miss mary, don't let her out of your sight, don't let her get further injury, and give her all the help she needs, but no matter what...do not let her near that hallway. Understand?" "Yes, headmistress." Maria tried to get up, while doing so, she scowled angrily at the both of them, archy walked over with a smile, surprising mary. "C'mon, mary let's get you back to your room, I'll get Iris to make you some food. Okay?"Archy helped her up, she wobbled and grabbed her leg again to ease the pain and continued to scowl menacingly at the bird, who simply turned away and headed back the way she came. "Ugh...how're we gonna get up there?" "The Pulley." Maria didn't bother to argue, she was in a grumpy enough mood as it is, archy put her arm under her shoulder for balance and the other arm to hold her up. She set maria down, though she did resist, and tugged on the line when she got along side her. Rafael and alice were at the other end and began pulling. They made it up rather quickly, it seemed everyone in the house was in on it and that pissed off maria greatly. She was grumpy and glared at everyone she passed, none of them mined , just as long as their friend would be ok. Archy set Maria down on the bed carefully, "so...how come you're all of a sudden so...nice?" "Because the headmistress wants me to take care of you and I'm always happy to care for newcomers." "Do you realize that you sound like some robot?" Archy sat on the bed and Maria turned over, though slowly and painfully while she bit her lip. "You shouldn't try to move so much. Just stay in bed." "Screw...you." She grabbed her leg and began to lift as she pulled herself up to sit up straight and tried to walk but just fell to her knees. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Archy nervously asked, "I'm going down to the kitchen to make my own food." "Iris is on her way up now! Lay back down!" She ran over to pick her up, Maria was too tired to resist, then there was a knock and without wait, Rafael, Iris, and Alice came in. Iris had a tray of food. "Grilled cheese, tomato soup, some crackers, chai tea, and the sugar is to the side. How sweet do you want it?" "Bitter." Alice gasped, Maria was known for loving sweets. "Do you have a fever?" She was set down on the bed, Rafael put the blanket over her and Alice helped bring her up straight as Iris put the tray on her lap. No one had noticed her arm restraints were off until she reached for the spoon, everyone ducked for cover, Maria looked at her arms, remembering the gauze, hid her arms under the blanket. They all peeked their heads up, seeing that her arms were hidden again, got up and sighed but then they all grew angry. "How did you get the buckles off and where are they?!" Archy asked worriedly. "None of your beeswax!" Maria replied grumpily, everyone else just deeply exhaled and sat on the bed as if to say "whatever". She lifted her arm back up from the blanket to get the spoon again, they all were watching her eat but it wasn't as awkward as you'd guess, Maria looked up, shrugged when her stomach growled and continued eating. She dipped the grilled cheese in the soup multiple times before finishing it, drank the rest of her soup without touching the crackers then chugged the tea, her mood starting to perk up. Not long after finishing, she told the others to leave the room except for archy as she fell asleep. She was reliving her time she had spent that day in the basement, she crawled under the blanket in her sleep, remembering the horrible sound of the screeches that constantly ringed in her ears that had caused her to lash out and kill tons of them. The man was proud. It was scary to remember such a thing and yet for some reason, there was still the feeling that he could indeed help her in some way, control her powers. He had called it a gift but she called it a curse. _Maybe he sees something I don't. If I were to go back down there then possibly…._


	11. Chapter 11

Meanwhile, in concern for her new ward, the crow began to board up the hallway which had contained the passageway to the basement. She called other older children to help her with this as well, after seeing the sight of the night before, everyone was concerned and distraught for maria. Hardly any of the kids even knew why they were boarding up a random hall but they just simply did as they were told as directed by their headmistress, surprisingly the teens were the most obedient. She had most of the boys helping her, most of which wanted her to sit down and let them do the hard work but she insisted on completing this job with them, and they were happy to oblige. Sometime during their work, they heard small cackling, the boys stopped and looked around curiously, "BOYS!" "Y-y-yes ma'am?" "Should you hear anything odd coming from this floor, just ignore it, and don't let it interfere with your jobs!" "YES MA'AM!" And they swiftly picked up their hammers and began pounding in the nails quick, to please the bird.

Sarah was watching this in one of the dumb waiters, Alice had told her that the bird was a telepath and so, decided to try and think something else, _I sure hope Maria'll be ok I wonder if Alice has any type of medicine._ It actually threw off the bird too. She looked behind her with a funny feeling but Sarah had already closed the door, she tugged on the rope three times telling them to pull her up slowly and carefully. The dumb waiters tended to be a tad creaky, if she tugged twice it meant "go as fast as you can EMERGENCY SPEED AT ONCE!" Maria and Alice were at the banister with archy of course, she had asked permission to leave the room as long as she didn't go downstairs, because she was still a little wobbly, archy was helping to hold her up. The one arm without the gauze was pulling the rope along with Alice so she wouldn't have to use much strength, everyone was against her being by the banister doing ANYTHING physical but she insisted and started limping out anyway. Once Sarah was up safe and sound, Maria began the interrogation. "It looked like they were under some kinda spell, and they're also boarding up a hallway...-" "oh that's it, I'm going down there!" Maria tried lifting her bad leg above the banister while she began to lean over, everybody grabbed her and yanked her away, she started kicking and fighting, then she held her arms up in the air and they all ducked but still held her. "SOMEONE GET THE BUCKLES!" Alice yelled, Maria looked terrified as her arm turned into a sword. Something that scared her even more was that she started to think about all the hollows she killed at once in one slash and how bloody her hands were.

Downstairs the 'old hag' had heard her thoughts and immediately turned into a bird and flew up fast. Even with 4 floors, she made it up in only a few seconds and perched herself on the banister ledge. While even carrying her dress to change into and flew over to where the others were at, when archy saw her she got a little nervous. "I swear, I didn't let her out of my sight, headmistress, I swear!" Maria was in a fit and was a little out of it but managed to hear what she had said, she smirked on the inside.

After being brought into the room, everybody stopped holding her down and eventually, Alexander brought in the buckles, archy and Alice pulled her arms out from behind her and clamped them on, she glared angrily at everybody. Some thought about handcuffing her to the bed. "How about you just stay in here the rest of the day and have a good rest, you heal much faster when asleep." Miss crowiller told her, maria just folded her heavily strapped in leather and buckled arms, growing impatient, she ordered everyone to leave the room at once and they did so without a moments hesitation. The bird got on one knee beside maria and gazed at her for an uncomfortable amount of time, maria was just confused as she cocked an eyebrow but had yet to say a word, _is she trying to hypnotize me? Make me one of her strange obedient robots? _Still not talking between either of them, the bird started to grow surprised, maria didn't even bother with the confusion anymore. Though, now getting curious, "just what are you trying to do? I'm not gonna become one of your stupid robots and I'm most certainly not going to be another obedient slave, you call your wards. You're just a normal ymbryne with one peculiarity and that's..-". Maria was starting to lose her train of thought as she started getting tired but refused to fall asleep, now she was more motivated than ever to prove her point and not sound like the crazy, paranoid, jewish stereotype anymore. "Y-you...have m-m-more than...one...p-pec-peculiarity, t-telepathy, h-hy-hypnotism, a-a-and….I j-just know….you're definitely…-", with those last few words she fell asleep. The bird was breathing heavily and fanning herself due to it, "I've never had to use those powers for so long before...she's a tough one, that girl." She looked back over at a sleeping maria and went to check her pulse, using such an amount of power can truly drain one of their life force. She was fine, luckily. Walking over to the door, expecting the sound of feet running away, turned the brass knob and saw no one in the hall, except for archy who was standing at the far end outside of sarah's room, there was laughing. So, assuming they hadn't heard a word, turned into a bird, grabbed hold of her dress with her beak and flew back down to the boys who were just about to pound in the last nail, the hallway entrance was completely sealed, air tight even. They saw her flying down and looked away while she nestled into her dress, wings spread into the sleeves and head, barely peeking out of the clolar, changed back into her human form and asked for the nail and hammer. "Happy to, headmistress!" They handed the equipment over as told and she told them they could have their lunch, the three smiled and ran to the kitchen, "JUST DON'T MAKE A MESS!" "WE WON'T, HEADMISTRESS!" They yelled back, already half way down.

The bird held up the nail to the wood, hammer in hand and with one hard swing, finally got the very last board on, the area now unbreakable and sturdy as an army base. Right as the last nail was hammered in, one of maria's eyes shot open then the other one, archy was with her by bedside and thought it was creepy, "m-mary?" She couldn't respond and was paralyzed from the neck down, _what did the old hag DO to me?!...was that her hypnosis or….?_ "Mary if you can hear me, blink." She barely managed to blink but her eyes weren't gonna get red anytime soon, according to her, her eyes felt just as fine when they're ABLE to blink in the first place. Archy sighed that maria wasn't dead under her watch and went over to the small window, when everyone was in the room with her, candles and gas lamps that they brought in from THEIR rooms. So without much of anything to do, maria started thinking about another way to get both downstairs in general AND even try to make it back to the basement the first time was on accident, anyone could've fallen through those steps and for a loop, in which a new house would stay a new house. A new house doesn't deteriorate so quickly, the wood can't be that fragile and from anybody's perspective, it looked rock solid if it were the rain then there'd be at least SOME kind of show of peeling paint wether redone or not, cracks are always see able if they have any. It's the 20's after all, then again, most people aren't focusing on decorations or the details of many things other than escape plans from the concentration camps. I knew one boy and his 5 year old sister who got torn away from their parents and were eventually split up as well between girl's and boy's. My family lived underground with several others, all cramped together on the cold floors, I was one of the little ones who was given permission to have a blanket due to my age, I was almost 7 at the time, half of my teeth gone and some partially grown. I always wore two to three layers of everything all the time and would give some of the little-er ones one of my sweaters. Thinking about this was getting Maria a little tears eyed, archy just stared out the window as some of the other kids played tag. Maria started thinking about any possible way to not only get down to the main level but also find a way to get to the basement, during this, her arms pulsed and beat like heart, they seemed to have a mind of their own and only wanted to break free. If it were possible for my hands to become a...blade then... She remembered what happened downstairs and all the blood that got on her hands, it was traumatizing but she still wanted to see if that man really could help her with control. They lash out when angry or scared. Only her fingers could move and that gave her an idea...Maria figured out a way to turn her finger into a long rope with a knife at the end. It moved closer to the door slowly and carefully but then, archy turned around when she heard a click and looked to Maria with some fear. This was her chance and she wasn't about to let it slip. Her other three fingers on her left side, grabbed archy and shoved her against the wall, making her dizzy and her eyesight hazy, Maria started to gain more control of her body, but only her neck leading to her head, most of her torso, and she could move her arms freely. With her fingers, managed to fuse them together once far enough away from the restraints and separated out again to form a grappling hook, shot it to the paneling of the edge of the door, used her other arm to rip the blankets off and pulled herself to the door. Upon making to the hallway, archy shot back up awake, Maria grabbed the door with her usable hands and slammed it shut, she turned her fingers into a key and managed to lock the door, archy's banging and pounding alerted everyone in their rooms. Before anyone could make it to the hall Maria turned her fingers into a large suction cup, there was a chandelier in the hallway, she pulled herself above it, it was huge enough to hide a person but couldn't support their weight so, Maria was hanging by her fingers just above it, completely hidden as everybody ran out into the hall. Little did she know that archy saw everything through the keyhole and she yelled through it, "SHE'S ON THE CHANDELIER!" Alice was right outside the door along with Ella And Sarah, "Mary get down here now!" Alice yelled then they saw what looked like a skin colored stretchy rope shoot out and attached to the nearest ceiling across, they saw a small tug and Mary flew out of her hiding place, everybody's jaws dropped in shock, "I THOUGHT THE RESTRAINTS WERE ON!" Alice nervously demanded an answer. "She's using her fingers!" Archy yelled through the door, they all saw Maria smirk when she looked down then let go of the ceiling and dropped. Everyone ran to the banister while she passed floor to floor, Maria turned upside down and she looked like a torpedo with her nose dive. At random, Alexander and Philip ran into the hallway, Alice saw and then got a little paranoid herself, knowing philip's peculiarity. He grabbed Ellie's hand and then flew up his own. Time slowed down then stopped fully, Alice's face was of shock, her light pink dress in mid-turn, part of her dark brown curly hair in her face and her jaw open. When Philip stopped time everything turns black and white like in those old silent films, the only ones still in color were himself and Ellie whose hand he was holding so she could move. He whispered in her ear what he wanted her to do then handed her something very small, "but...I-I don't like transforming, it scares people…" "I'm the only one who can see you when I've used my powers, if it makes you feel better I'll turn away and close my eyes, once you're done, come back up here and tap my shoulder ok?" Ellie smiled and nodded then alerted philip to turn away now as there began a small moment of silence. Then, her transformation started…: Her eyes turned black, her teeth sharpened menacingly similar to a shark, the tip of two wings slowly made it's way out of her back as if a piece of skin was coming off but no blood instead is replaced with watery slime, the kind you'd see on a frog, as it makes it's way out, the wings that had finally come out were like those of a bat's and almost three times the size of her body in height and as long as a totem pole, philip tightly shut his eyes with his hands covering them as well, her nails grew out far and even sharper than her teeth which were that of new knifes, blood veins came up to her face as if her cheeks were cracking only they pulsed with the heavy sound of her heartbeat, her wings began to flap up and down slowly then got progressively faster as she began to rise up, over the banister almost like hovering only more bouncily due to the wing flapping. Philip was tempted to look after the loud noise of ellie's wings but stood by his word and kept his eyes closed then he heard the sound of wind sweeping by him fast almost like a dust cloud left behind from…,(you know what, I'm not even going make a Looney Toons reference here, this moment is too serious...I think I just screwed it up). Ellie shot down to maria then stopped perfectly without the need to slow down and slowly made her way to maria without moving her body. She took off the restraints and they fell to the ground peacefully then went to put the small object philip had given her into her friends hair, according to all of her friends, there could be a bird's nest forming through and in her hair and she wouldn't even notice until someone points it out. It was a recorder, there are two, the one in maria's hair could only hear voices from around them but it wasn't a communicator, the other one philip had could only hear what maria heard. Luckily no telepath can listen to thoughts when time is stopped, the device was easily nestled into her giant mess of knotted, thick, curly, long hair. Ellie flew back up at the same flash speed as before, she shook her head fast and it turned back to normal then used all her strength to literally push her wings into her back once more like an accordion, after pushed inward all the way, the skin instantly regenerated over it layer after layer until the wing marks were invisible and her back looked normal. She tapped philip on the shoulder like said, he turned around and saw an adorable little girl with her perfectly normal goldy locks curls, a few strands tied back with a purple bow and light purple long skirt, her regular laced up high boots, her black jacket though...was completely torn to shreds, same goes for the back of her long sleeved light blue high neck. It looked like just the same peculiar girl he's always known and still has yet to see what she looks like on the inside but apparently, to her, it's embarrassing. He smiled back then flew his hands up and time started again. "Philip don't do it!" Alice yelled nervously, not knowing what he'd done, "sorry, alice but you're a little late for that, I had an idea and I needed ellie for it that's why I grabbed her hand, I already did what I had to do." "B-but..." "You don't have to worry...I've got a fool proof plan in store, there's a recorder in mary's hair right now." "When did you have time to build that?" "In the other loop, back at the camp." "When and how did you-" "before we were numbered off, before the horse race." "I'll ask again, how did you build it, where'd you find the equipment?" Philip rubbed the back of his head and looked away nervously then back up at alice and laughed awkwardly."does it REALLY matter, point is, we're going to spy on mary for her safety, ok?" Alice gave him a guilty glare."possibly...maybe..from the speakers throughout the camp that the nazi's would kinda speak through..." "YOU LITTLE PSYCHO, SO IT WAS YOU TWO THAT CAUSED THE HORSE RACE!" "Hey, we escaped didn't we?" "I should just call Anna to come in and catch Mary, whose falling...very slowly..." "It gives her plenty of time to make a hole with her...arms..." Alice looked down at mary who was falling in slow-mo and her arm restraints were off. "Why are the buckles off?!" As they had this conversation they'd completely forgotten that they weren't the only ones in the hallway, alice looked over to her right and saw rafael, sarah, archy's eye through the door keyhole, all staring at them, and alexander who was to enveloped in maria and her slow fall that was beginning to pick up speed. When she noticed the buckles gone, her arms changed into a drill for the first time and she went straight through the floor. "C'mon, everybody to my room!" With that, he grabbed alice and ellie's hands and urged the others to follow him.


	12. Chapter 12 Caul VS Maria

Once in the room, philip closed the door and sat down on his bed after he grabbed hold of a small box with a few buttons and told everyone to sit down with him so he could explain, alice used sign language and acted out his words with her hands to rafael. "Basically, we can hear her but she can't hear us, ellie put it in her hair so she most likely won't find it untless we were to tell her, so just listen, ok?" They all nodded and moved in closer to the recorder and there was a pause before they heard talking.

"Ah, welcome back mary, good to see you again." "Cut the crap, I want some answers!" "I assumed so, come sit." She walked over calmly as the man started humming Swan Lake, there was the sound of a chair scooting out. "First off, what did the old hag mean by 'fate coming upon myself'"? And how come this place makes my wounds hurt more?" "Honesty or lie?" Maria glared, he assumed truth. "Alright..., there _is indeed_ a type of gas in the air here created from hollows, it's from the inside of their bodies and eventually seeps out of their skin, when you slaughtered most of them you released a huge bundle of gas all at once. Causing your wounds to reopen and sting, I've personally grown immune because I basically live here, though not exactly by choice...". "I'm not gullible or some sucker for a sob story-" "-because you have your own, true there aren't many worse than yours, you are quite clever, Mary". Upstairs, everyone was shocked that she actually allowed someone else call her by her nickname. "Many people tend to confuse that cleverness for paranoia and that's why the old hag put you under surveillance." "'The old hag'...that's what Mary calls the bird!" Alice stated. Mary looked away for a second, "something wrong?" "Are those two hollows still here?" "Yes indeed, in the corner over there." He pointed toward his left diagonally and past Maria, she looked over and saw chains that looked as though they were floating and moved a little every now and then, but she knew those were the hollows. "They are no longer a threat and can't hurt you, go ahead, change your arm." Maria paused and was hesitant, looking back up at the odd smiling man, got encouragement and decided to let her arm change into a cleaver but a little smaller, no scream. "What happened?" He looked at her then back at the hollows, "or...how about we stay on topic, what else have you had in mind?" Maria looked down after she had lost her train of thought. "Why does the old hag try to keep me away from here?" "Most likely because..." The man had his chin rested on his knuckles and appeared deep in thought, obviously hiding something and trying to come up with a good lie. Maria got over her confusion and went to annoyance, "I'm not gonna fall for some clear and blatant lie...it's YOU isn't it!" He gave a cocky grin. "Smart, smart, Maria the smart. It's simply because the old hag is ashamed." "Ashamed of what?" "That there is a wight living under her roof, and not just me." "You mean archy." "Yes." There was a small moment of silence where it felt like time had stopped and there was nothing else to say or do but it went by quickly. "Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me everything?" Her hand became a sword and shot toward his neck but then another question came to mind, "...what's your name?..." "The bird won't want me to say this but….caul…". Maria froze at how familiar the name sounded but her mind was at a stand-still when she tried to figure it out. "And you never told me how you know so much about me…and don't tell me it's because of your supposed 'sharp ears'!" "Now now, not _everything_ must be told at once." He patted her head and something fell out of her hair, it fell to the floor but had a soft lining so it went unheard luckily. "How about we try a little target practice?" She snarled at first but then caul walked over to a small, barely noticeable light switch and flicked it on. Many bright lights came on and the bloodbath that had occurred from her last visit was still there. "A-am I going to have to w-walk on that?" "I'm surprised at you, mary, you must've seen some gruesome sights from your last loop, surely blood was one of them." "Never said I didn't but I still hate seeing it, makes me sick." In the bedroom, almost everyone had gasped at the word 'blood' though it was faint seeing as the recorder was down for the count but it could still pick up sound. He ushered her into the large lake of blood as she tried to swallow her fear and gag reflex. "Walk towards the shackles in the corner, carefully." "I suppose." _Wait a minute...the two living hollows! _"Those are the only living hollows left in this room, their heads are all 3 feet above the ground, they're hunched and can't move due to the shackles being shortened." It was only then that maria noticed the chains to the shackles were at least 2 feet long from there to the wall that they were attached to. "They're all huddled in the one corner….kill them." "WHAT?!"

"WHAT?!" Everybody upstairs yelled in sync and a raised eyebrow from rafael.

"...But….I" "they were the ones who caused you so much pain, literally AND emotionally, it was a hollow that had killed your _real_ father, he'd grown old just like your great grandfather-" " .UP…." She began taking deep breaths when she noticed her hand starting to sharpen, the man applauded. "GREAT WORK! Wonderful, wonderful mary! You're making progress!" He told her with his, always, suspicious looking smile, maria looked at him with a glare of hate. "What's stopping me from killing you right now?" He paused but for a short time. "Everything." "Huh?" "The guilt of killing a man would be a great weight on your shoulders that you'd never forget, it'd slowly and painfully break you down and drive you mad at what you'd done, not only that...you pity me, don't you?" Her glare turned to puzzled, until he finally showed her his feet. One foot chained to the wall but the chain was at least 50 feet and was a big pile in one of the other corners since there was enough room to walk, maria just stood dumbfounded. "I am a wight who's been trapped here for...who knows how long, it's a loop, you can hardly tell day from night in here and there's no clock either. Anyway, ever since I've been trapped down here, I've been the victim of many experiments. Explain a few things, hmm? If you don't believe me further then…, maria reizend…real parents,-". _ Why aren't I stopping him? _"-Jacob Portman and Emma Bloom, after they were killed off, you were adopted and so, you're last name changed to Reizend, I personally think it has a much better ring to it than Maria Portman...don't you?" Maria just lost it, her scowl would've been able to not only shoot through his heart but make it explode causing him to bleed internally then finish the job with a decapitation, at least that's what she was thinking of. Tears streamed down her face but her face spoke of anger and hatred as she charged caul. Through the recorder, they all heard the whole conversation then just the sound of clicking heels splashing onto the puddles of blood that got progressively louder as it came toward caul who was right in front of the recorder. There was a small moment between them that seemed like time slowed down. Just when maria's blade was about to hit his neck, he caught it between his hands, she threw him off by giving him a surprised look then pulled her other hand out from behind her back and morphed into a chain saw and rammed through his stomach. A long silence came after, all of maria's friends were all on alexanders bed, listening carefully and ready to run out of the room and down to maria any time. The man began to laugh. "How can you….-"? He was hunched over holding his stomach where the wound had been inflicted then stood up straight and no bleeding, saw shaped, gap was visible. "-Laugh?...very easily. I've gone through many experiments and thus, have oquired multiple peculiar capabilities, healing, telepathy,...hypnosis." Maria's jaw dropped, "THAT'S why I've been feeling the need to come down here so often, it wasn't because I wanted to control my powers it was…-". _When I go back and think about it….until we came to this loop…. _"-I was capable of controlling them the whole time! YOU did this to me!" He clapped his hands and sneered. "Bravo, bravo! Mary, you are quite the entertainment!" "You bastard! that means you're also the one who put me through all that ridiculous torture!" The man cocked an eyebrow, looking intrigued. "Torture, you say?..." Maria looked at him with confusion and slight fear of what he might do, he walked toward her slowly. "You have no idea what _real_ torture feels like, mary." He looked intimidatingly threatening with a very serious and also...nervous glare, maria was terrified but then, his glare wore down and turned into a smile as he playfully ruffled her hair. "It's fine, it's fine, it's quite alright to be naive, I wish I was that blissfully unaware of this pain that I feel every day burning inside me. I must admit, I'm jealous of you my dear." Maria was speechless and slapped away his hand, "you have no clue what I've seen!" "Those men merely killed the Jews." "No! They were brutally tortured!" The man became silent, he smiled creepily and walked closer to Maria while she backed away. "Do you know what makes us different from normals?" "Peculiars have a second soul which allows them to travel through loops." "What if I told you that I could steal that second soul, what would you do, hmm?" He put his hand to her cheek, "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Her hand became a samurai sword and she shoved it through his forehead then pushed him back. Caul just put his hand over the stab wound, when he moved it away it was gone. Maria tried to run for the stairs but forgot about her limp leg and tripped on one of the hollows remains.


	13. Chapter 13 the rescue and the bird

"We have to go down there and help!" Alice stated, no one hesitated for a second then she looked toward Philip, "I need you to stop time, we'll all hold hands!" They listened to Alice and each grabbed each other's hands as Philip flew up his. Everything became black and white except them. "Ellie, we need to jump down there, transform!" "What?! But I..." "It's okay, none of us will judge you. So please, do it for Mary!" Ellie looked down then slowly nodded and walked away from them so there'd be room. She looked at them, worried for their reaction but then let herself change. Her eyes turned black just like last time, Alice's serious expression didn't change reassuring Ellie and nobody else showed any sign of fear, she smiled and continued. Her wings began to tear out of her back as her teeth sharpened and her nails grew longer and became like talons. Ellie glanced once again over to her expressionless friends and was shocked at their reaction, then the wings fully came out, same gigantic size as before. "How come you guys aren't afraid, I'm hideous." "Because we all know who you really are on the inside." Alice told her with a kind smile, Ellie had tears in her black eyes and smiled back showing her shark like teeth that she couldn't contain with her lips due to their size, she spoke in a raspy voice that couldn't be helped. "Alright. Get on my back in between my wings, I can only take two at a time, Alice and Philip first." They nodded without a second thought or a moments hesitation as they crawled under huge wings to get behind her, Ellie told the others to stand back as her wings started to flap. They began slowly then picked up speed, the three came off the ground and headed toward the banister, once they were to the center floating above 4 stories, Ellie looked at Alice and Philip. "Fast or slow?" She asked. "Fast." Ellie nodded, looked down, told them to hang on and they dived at light speed.

They neared the bottom, right above the large hole Maria had made as they hovered atop and noticed a lake of blood. Ellie's wings flapped slower for an easier land. "Touch down." She told them in her dark, raspy voice even though it had the ring of a playful child. Alice and Philip got off then turned around to see a black and white frightened Maria on the ground looking up at a man that they all guessed must be caul while he was holding her ankle, small knife in hand and a vicious grin. "alright, I'll slap him with my wings, knocking the knife out of his hand, these wings are pretty darn strong." "Alright. Philip, ellie, ready when you are!" Alice told them, they nodded and philip threw down his arms. Ellie slapped the man's whole body, throwing him into the wall and knocking the knife out of his hand before he even knew what was going on giving him no time to react. Alice caught the knife once it was flown into the air, "HA GOT IT!" Maria looked around in surprise then smirked. "I was wondering when you guys'd show up. I saw the mike on the ground when I started backing away." It was their turn to be surprised even ellie turned around to face her, maria smiled just like alice. "'Sup ellie!" She got teary eyed again with joy, the man slowly got up rubbing the back of his head then saw Ellie. She turned her head to face him and he screamed, at first she felt bad again but then remembered what he'd done to her friend and became as scary as possible. Alice and Philip helped Maria up as she hopped on one foot and her arms around her friends for balance, the man looked at her with a sly grin. Maria got scared again. "My dear Maria...I'll be watching, don't forget that." She couldn't speak, she was just too afraid, Alice and Philip noticed her terrified face as the man began to chuckle. Ellie hit him again with her wings, "put Mary on my back!" They did so but it was a struggle getting her anywhere with her limp hopping. She started to flap her wings then they shot out and up to the fourth floor. Caul remained in a daze, when Maria made it to their hallway, Rafael was waiting then jumped to hug her and she hugged him back. Ellie shot back down and came back up in a flash. But then Maria heard a faint snap and her arm started to pulse, "EVERYONE GET AWAY FROM ME NOW!" Most we're confused but then quickly got back, Ellie engulfed the others in her wings as Maria's arm started to change into an enormous buey knife. "Leave me alone, you bastard!" She could hear him laughing in her mind as she limped to her room. Using her other hand, made it a key again, releasing archy then shoved her out and leaped back inside. While there, she gripped her arm tightly as more of her arm was becoming the weapon, the changing was coming up to her shoulder.

_You will come back down here, right….now…_

_NO! You can't tell me what to do, leave me alone! You've already lost,...caul!_

_I beg to differ…_

_what're you planning, scum!_

_Well….if you refuse to kill the last few hollows down here then….I guess-_

_DON'T YOU DARE EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! I'd never hurt someone I care about._

_Heh heh, all the more reason, with just the snap of my fingers...You can dispose of your 'so called' friends, mary…_

_Y-you can't!_ Maria pleaded. "Mary! We're coming in, we can help." Alice had knocked on the door. Maria quickly used her free hand to form the same key as before and managed to lock herself in then began focusing on the other arm to try and change it back.

_It's useless, either get back down here like a good girl or...I could make you unlock that door and you can slaughter your friends, the choice is yours..._

_You shut up! I'm doing neither!_

Her arm began to slowly change back and she could see her fingers again, uncontrollably, she unlocked the door then, there was another snap. As everyone barged in, Maria's eyes closed and they could tell she was about to fall, Rafael shoved through everybody and caught her in his arms once she'd fallen. Her arm was now half weapon half normal, Alice assumed she could help so she got down beside her and thought to heal her arm. It began turning back to normal and everyone sighed in relief. "Are there any more buckles?" Alice asked worriedly, archy shook her head, Ellie started to change back and eventually responded. "We could always tie her to the bed." Alice looked offended for her friend thinking about the ridiculous suggestion but then, she thought about it a little harder, soon archy did as well, rafael was confused but then alice looked over to ellie and hesitantly nodded and she ran out of the room to find alexander. Alice sighed thinking about why alexander had such weird stuff,_ he's like a smuggler, ask him what 'ya want and he'll have it on him in some kind of suspicious trench coat. _She ran to his room and it looked like he was waiting, probably heard through one of the peep holes since he was already holding the rope. "Need some help?" He asked, alice walked over to him calmly and silently then took him by the wrist and dragged him out of the room. "ALICE HURRY!" The two of them ran back to the room to see maria just talking to herself.

_They have the rope, are you really going to let them do this, if they were real friends, they'd support your power and help you with it._

_they ARE helping! If i'm tied down, I can't hurt anyone!_

_If you're tied down, you'll never learn how to control it_

_YOU'RE the one who told me I couldn't control it. When I remembered what I was like before we all came here and before I met you I WAS able to control it. It was your influence that changed me!_

_Clever, clever, maria portman._

_Shut...up. _The man stopped talking for a while and she thought it was over then sighed. Alice and alexander entered the room, rope ready. Maria needed help to get up, rafael and archy got under her arms and heaved then dragged her to the bed. They laid her down gently and she didn't struggle when alice approached her with the rope and started tying.

_You're honestly going to let them do this, where's that pride of yours. You should just kill them._

_I'm not gonna listen to you anymore and you can't make me come down there!_

"She's talking to herself again, what do we do?" Ellie asked in concern, alice looked down, unsure herself. "Well I'm not leaving archy in charge here." Archy grumbled with a pout. "I couldn't help it, she locked me in after she knocked me down!" Alice patted her on the back after looking back down at maria, rafael looked anxious, obviously wishing he could hold her hand for comfort, he probably needed it more than her. While everybody was just scared for her, caul almost took maria's second soul, the one thing that makes her peculiar. Though she wouldn't show it, everybody knew she was just as scared as them when it came to caul. Maria's face turned slightly red and began sweating and hyperventilating, rafael was worried for her. Archy actually did care for all the wards in the house, all of them from different loops, different times, some survivors, others had hardly known the meaning of the word evicted let alone a war. Special hollows had been starting to form and had become capable of entering loops as wights already are, this thought had scared many peculiars, being unable to see an enemy was frightening enough let alone be attacked by one. Maria had yet to tell pretty much anyone her past, not even rafael or alice, it made them a little suspicious but each of them cared for one another greatly. Similar to ellie's transformation and how no one was phased. Nobody had noticed that sarah had walked into the room with them until she spoke. "Hey, alice, do 'ya think the rope'll be enough?" They all jumped the minute they heard her talk then she lowered the invisibility barrier to see the usual shoulder cut, dirty blonde, freckle faced little girl they all knew and loved, after seeing such horrific sights, it was nice to see a comforting familiar face. Alice snapped to, "I hope but I'm not too sure, mostly right now she just looks a bit sick with a fever. I don't think I can heal an internal injury when her immune system can do the work. We just need to keep her hydrated."

_Ha! They just think you got some case of cold!_

_You shut up, they're caring for me, it's not like they're doctors, they can't tell what's truly wrong with me! Which is you!_

_Now now, must you be so harsh, I just want to be your friend._

_A friend that wanted to take my second soul! You know perfectly well what'd happen to a peculiar without their second soul, they'd just become a mumbling limp, a husk of a person and a normal._

_Then...what would you do if I did that to all your friends._

_you can't control them, I won't let you!_

_Then do as I say! Break those ropes and get back down here! _Just then, everyone heard a scratching on one of maria's small windows, archy walked over to it in curiosity while maria got nervous. Archy opened up the curtain to see a crow clawing at it, her face gleamed, maria rolled her eyes expecting a lecture on what had happened. When archy let her in she went straight toward the bed and landed about five inches from maria's sarcastic expressing face. "Old hag."

_Miss mary." _Alice, being able to read both animal and human thoughts, sighed, crossed her arms and blew a stray long curl out of her face, knowing how their conversation will go. "Guess I'm gonna have to be the translator…"

_Caul, the man trapped in that basement has a large grudge against your birth parents. Being their child, his hate has shifted ever since he learned of both your presence and their death. After this, he sent a hollow to spy and follow you. _Alice translated and after hearing this, maria pouted. "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THIS WAS GOING ON?! YOU MAKE IT SOUND LIKE YOU WERE ACTUALLY THERE!"

_Miss wren had given me one of her loyal messenger pigeons. And I took it to good use, I wanted to ensure your safety as much as possible._

_I care for all my wards no matter, I know when new ones will arrive. _Alice was a little hesitant to translate but did so anyway._ I was growing tired of all the spying then I heard a snap and knew it must be caul, probably telling me to break the ropes once more but instead, it made me really tired, it was easy to tell the old hag was worried at what was happening and didn't want me to fall asleep, she began pecking at my forehead and cheek. This got me more annoyed but within a couple seconds...I was knocked out._


	14. Chapter 14 Welcome to Cairnholm

_I shot up, leaning straight forward as if nothing was hurting, which was surprisingly true. I felt no pain whatsoever, not even on my leg that had became almost completely decayed due to the acidic tentacle that had been previously latched onto it, the gauze is gone too! It's like I never got injured then all of a sudden, a blinding light came upon me and I found it was actually the sun. When I turned to look behind me, expecting to see the enormous castle, all 200 peculiar kids called "home"... What was there shocked me greatly, when compared to the home I was currently residing, it was much smaller but still was a very large "house". Looked to be about the size of a fairly wealthy and good shaped home, just big enough for minimum being practically 12 with room to spare. Colorful, lovely decor, the trees and forest surrounded it perfectly making it rather secluded but still left a good view of the large town below, all of which had a quaint and beautiful country like feel. The sun shining down but not particularly hot persay, more of a calming windless warm. I was wearing different clothes after noticing my unusually pleasant scent considering I had smelled more of dirt, rain water, dried blood, and the awful stench of hollowgast. Clearly I had recently taken a bath and scrubbed very much so. The clothing I had on had no tight non-breathable corset with tight long sleeves nor did it button up to the neck, I had no blue sweater with it's signature Star of David on it, indicating I was Jewish, my knotted weave of hair was tied back and wavy, damp too as it shined in the sunlight as it often does when wet or simply well taken care of, I had ankle high, white socks and black...buckled loosely shoes? This came as a real surprise having practically lived in my just-above-ankle-high dark brown boots. I felt like some little kid since they were buckles and not laces giving me the feel that I couldn't tie them. I had on an odd light pink sundress, it's embroidery was like that of a daisy. Not a spot of dirt on me but still, that house seemed truly familiar in some way…. I was sitting on a tree stump overlooking the town below me._

"LOOK OUT!" A voice cried out, _for some reason I think I knew exactly what was coming at me and knew to simply throw up my arms straight above me. And apparently I caught something rubbery, I brought it down to my field of vision and it was a dodge ball, I turned around , getting off the tree stump to see a young boy in overalls and a brown button up collar long sleeve loose shirt, the very casual kind, with a paper-boy gray hat, he had odd dark circles under his eyes. Lack of sleep? No, it looks like something he was born with, his hair was flat and short, kind of a red-ish blonde. He just stared at me in shock while I was confused as to the look I received._

"Great catch! What's your name?"

"I-I'm maria, but I like to be called mary."

"Names enoch and this is bronwyn and olive." The other two girls he mentioned came out, but one of them came out of the trees and it looked like something was pulling up her legs while she hung from the branch, the one called bronwyn came out of one of the bushes nearby. Olive looked like an 8 year old, bronwyn appeared to be at least 11 while enoch looked 10.

"So, how old are you?"_ I looked down and to my left, my finger to my chin and my elbow resting on my other arm._

"I'm technically 16, but to be literal, I'm 67." The little girl in the tree giggled.

"Haha, you're younger than me!" _Bronwyn grabbed a rope and lassoed her down and brought her over to me so I could get a closer look, I smirked, the little girl looked confused._

"At least I have all my teeth." Olive scoffed, a normal little girl would be bawling at the minor insult, her two front teeth were missing as predicted for someone with her body, no matter the age.

"What's _your _power?" _I was pretty hesitant, of course but I still chose to give bronwyn the ball and focused, I had perfect control as it became a small kitchen knife, it didn't shoot out to form a giant axe or anything. I had total control and that made me ecstatic, I managed to keep my cool._

"I can shape shift my arms and legs into...commonly weapons, but most recent, I've been able to turn it into wheels for riding and suction cups that can even support my weight." _They all clapped except bronwyn who was still holding the ball and the rope holding olive by her torso._

"Olive, why don't I take you back into the house to put on your weighted shoes, hmmm?" _She asked politely, olive grumbled, knowing she'd miss out on some of the game, bronwyn pulled her back into the house anyways, leaving me and enoch alone._

"Where're your friends? I'd assume you'd have some in your last loop." _There was a pause and I could tell enoch was getting nervous as to whether or not it was too deep, I looked up at the sky as a few clouds came overhead then smiled._

"To be honest, I'm pretty sure I'm still in my other loop, still in my bed while my other friends surround me, I'm actually sick in bed with a fever. My friends are sarah and ellie, both germans, both peculiar. Rafael, who can control aquatic animals, philip who can stop time, alexander who, when he touches a picture can see it's history before it was taken, alice, she heals and can talk to animals. Sarah can become invisible at will and ellie...doesn't really like to talk about _her _peculiarity."


	15. Chapter 15 Maria Portman

"Interesting, also...what might your last name be?" _This really got me nervous, not too sure about his reaction, what little I can remember about my dad were his stories about his many adventures with the peculiar children and their ymbryne, Miss Peregrine or "the bird". He told me about his grandfather and how he had left to go fight in the war, abandoning his lover, emma. Those two wanted to get married and start a family, miss P had told him when he first arrived that leaving the island would mean he'd start aging again. If they wanted to have a child, they'd need to age properly for 9 months. Once I was born, and was at the age in which I'd be able to retain actual memory, for me that was around 6. They were my bedtime stories and after school I'd ask to hear them while I ate my snacks, during dinner was mom's turn to tell about HER time while my great grandpa had left and before my dad had arrived. They were all tales of how fun it was at the house, what it was like playing with all her friends. But one thing that never got through my head was always when she'd talk about a "show" in the evening, every evening. I never understood it nor could I truly remember what show it was precisely. But I do know that both men in my family had left behind their dear friends for another purpose, it sounded horrible._

_I know I'd never leave my friends. My birth parents were killed in an air raid while I was at a friend's house and from then on...my friend's parent's didn't even consider the possibility of adopting me despite how close I was with their daughter. So I was put in an orphanage at the age of 12. I was adopted at 13 and so, my last name changed to reizend. One day, when the nazi's came searching through the houses...I was the only Jew in my new family, I chose to keep my religion no matter the consequences. My step parents' were scum...the minute they came knocking while they kissed their crosses, they shoved me forward until I bumped into one of the men. Sacrificing their non-biological daughter kept them out of their business, the minute they saw the star on my sweater, they took me by the wrist, their grip tight and painful. Didn't even gimme a chance to pack my bags, I gave one final scowl at my trader adoptive parents as I was yanked out the door and thrown into a muddy puddle. I was taken by the wrists once more and dragged into the street as I was escorted to the nearest camp. 2 years after being beaten, starved, and witnessing death after brutal death, the burning of bodies and the never ending sound of my own stomach grumbling became too much until one day, one of the nazi's came in, saw the dead weight of the pathetic 15 year old sitting in a corner and sobbing silently and continuously. He yanked me up by my collar and dragged me out of my little hubble with which I shared with 20 other people. When he threw me into the mud it was then I realised that I was fed up with it._

_That same day, several new kids were transferred to the camp, there wasn't a star on them, guess they got busted for hiding them. I'd almost forgotten about the nazi behind me with his beating stick, seeing it scared me too much. One shot to the stomach and my fragile ribs would break like pencils. He was about to swing and then something inside me just let out like some spark of determination as I held my head tightly and shook. Apparently that got the new kids' attention since they were the only ones who stared, I closed my eyes then heard a slash. When I got back up and looked around, all there was, was limb-less nazi's, not a single one had their arms and legs as they bled out slowly. I was horrified at the sight. Then I looked down at my hand and for a fast moment, I saw a sword emerging out of my sleeve which immediately turned back into my regular hand. Scary at first but I ended up ignoring it as I looked back over at the kids whom had just witnessed it all, I gasped hoping I didn't traumatize them, their jaws, agape then progressively turned into smiles and they all ran towards me. For some reason, my instincts told me to duck and cover, which I did. They all stopped, feeling bad for me, one of them continued toward me with a helping hand which was rafael. He was and is tan with jet black straight hair gelled to the side, giving him short and shiny bangs, his eyes, brown as mine. Not minding that my hands were completely soaked in blood, he grabbed hold and pulled me up, I wasn't much heavier than a toddler so he almost fell over._

_"HEXE!"_

_"DEVIL'S NACHWUCHS!" One of the girls saw me holding my ears at the sound of their judging cries and insults despite the fact that I had just saved them from future pain...at least for a little while. The girl hugged me, alice, rafael joined soon after. Then they took me by the shoulder and ushered me away and out of the camp, I didn't even look back…._

"_I'm alice." She told me._

"_Maria…reizend…". I said shakily._

"_mi nombre es rafael." I let go of the hug, a bit surprised._

"_He doesn't know much english, that would be-"_

"_rafael. Encantado de conocerte, de nombre María, sé algo de español a mí mismo!" Alice's eyes grew wide, rafael smiled and shook my hand happily, must've been annoyed to have to visualise his words for her to understand, makes me wonder why they're friends. They walked me over a long way, then to a train, I, without saying a word. Upon getting on the train, it ended up being mostly rafael and I talking, we talked about lots of things but then, at the end of the ride he told me how old he was…. "TWELVE?!" Alice slapped her forehead expecting their ages to have been mentioned immediately in their conversation._

"_May we speak english now?!" I nodded, alice sighed, obviously bored out of her mind._

"_Say...where're we going anyhow?"_

"_You're awfully slow to the punch." She told me bluntly, I pouted with a steamed face._

"_We're headed to berlin, then from there, warsaw."_

"_POLAND?!"_

"_Yeah but first I gotta make a call." There was a payphone and past it was another train slowly pulling into station._

"_TRAIN B FIRST CALL, BERLIN, I REPEAT, TRAIN B FOR BERLIN!"__I was wondering what alice had in mind with a call if the train we wanted was already here._

_That day she was wearing a plaid skirt going to her knees with high laced boots, a pink clara bow hat with a darker pink ribbon as it's lining, containing her dark curls, though a few were in her face that couldn't be pulled back, a black cotton jacket with only three big buttons going down. Meanwhile I was shivering in my thick wool button down gray jacket, my navy blue sweater tied around my waist, I had on my long tattered, filled with holes, muddy, worn down, light gray ankle skirt, black one buckle flats, the type a man would wear so they were clunky, no socks nor stockings so they chafed my heels and toes. Rafael was in plain suspenders, a simply white undershirt beneath, black slacks with a light blue belt, similar shoes as mine and his own dark brown cotton jacket. He saw me shivering and gave his jacket to me, I smiled but I didn't blush as I carefully put it on, not wanting to scratch my already read, cold and dry hands. None of us had gloves though so I was out of luck, my attention was averted to alice when I heard her make a bird noise into the phone, I couldn't identify it._

"_Ah yes, hello, it's alice. I've brought a newcomer and we're headed down there now. Okay, bye." She hung up the phone and walked back over to us, a small smile on her face as she took both rafael and I by our arms as we boarded the train, the doors shut right behind us but as we sat down...I recall seeing a shadow in the crowd with no owner, I had no idea what it was but it quickly became engulfed by the crowd and vanished, it gave me an eerie feeling as a chill went down my spine._


	16. Chapter 16 Miss Peregrine

A few moments before, maria just simply told enoch her last name was reizend and olive and bronwyn came back out, olive wasn't floating anymore. "Her weighted shoes, they keep her from flying away so we don't have to tie her down or keep a rope on her at all times. Led lining." She said, maria was still deep in thought and was mumbling quietly after she told enoch her adoptive last name, even when the game started she was still thinking about it in order to sort everything out of her head. None of the three bothered her about it as long as she didn't get hit with the ball or hit anyone else with it either until she got a tap on the shoulder, she was genuinely shocked that her arms didn't morph into daggers. _I'm in control of my powers perfectly! _But still, her regular reflex was to slap whoever was behind her, she turned around to see no one there. "Forgive me for startling you, I'm millard." A male voice came out of nowhere it seemed. Maria's eyes darted from every angle trying to tell where the voice came from, then the 'voice' grabbed her shoulders and turned her around to where he was standing, took one of her hands and shook it since she couldn't see his. "Millard nullings, at your service, I'm invisible." "Oooooooh, I see. Thanks for clearin' it up for me." "Not a problem. Are you staying for dinner? I'll introduce you to the bird." Maria's face went a little pale with worry and her usual paranoia about what _this _bird might think of her.

"Do you happen to know a Miss Crow?" She asked as they started walking inside.

"Miss Crow? Why, of course, she resides in London along with Miss Wren."

Enoch, olive, and bronwyn both just stared blankly at the two walking in, millard held her hand as she carefully walked up the stairs and opened the door for her like a proper gentlemen. Maria smiled kindly and a little surprised, _when was the last time a guy opened a door for me? _She wondered. Upon entering, her eyes were immediately drawn to the chandelier and how pretty it was.

"TAG! YOU'RE IT!" _A boy in a fancy looking outfit with a tophat and a monocle fell face forward right by our feet._ _He got up and I saw a little girl running toward a small hallway entrance. _"Ah! Claire, would you come here? Horace, get up I want you two to meet someone!" Millard told them, claire stopped in her tracks and ran over, the boy who was on the ground hopped up, brushed himself off then held out his hand. "Hi, I'm horace, who're you?" Maria shook his hand hesitantly, "maria reizend."

"And this would be claire." Millard told her, _the adorable little girl with the light brown curls really reminds me of ellie!_

"Nice to meet 'ya, maria." _Her voice is cute too! Oooh, now I understand why grandma's like to pinch little kids' cheeks. _Millard tapped her shoulder yet again and she jumped again. "Easy, easy, why don't I take you to see the bird?" Maria nodded as her smile faded and she was getting nervous. They walked up the stairs from the dining hall then through a hardwood floor, painted walls, long hallway leading to about 5 doors on both sides. The door at the very end had a fancy crystal, pearl-embedded handle and knew it must be the bird's quarters. Millard opened the door for maria once more and she slowly walked in. A large chair facing opposite of her, millard closed the door behind her. A large desk stood in front of the chair with a few papers an ink bowl and a quil, a small puff of smoke came from behind the chair then a voice soon after. "How long do you plan on staying?" It was the voice of an elderly woman so it was obviously safe to assume that this was the ymbryne watching over this loop but she sounded a little irritated.

"Miss...Peregrine?"_ She turned around in her chair, looking down and progressively working her way up, her face got more shocked as she made it to my face, the lighting was dim so I assumed I wasn't a clear picture. Do I look weird?_

"Miss bloom?" _There was a pause as clearly she couldn't see right I stepped closer toward the light of her window shining behind her. Then she looked a little sad but quickly got over it after getting a better view and pushed her glasses up with a sigh and sincere face._

"Oh, I apologize for my rude, irritant tone, I mistook you for someone else very dear to me. What might your name be, dear?" Her former tone changed to sweet old ha-...lady. _Should I be honest? I just knew I couldn't trust the last ymbryne with my name, even my adoptive one! I just hope this one can't read minds, but I hear withered crones tend to 'get around'_.

"Maria." Miss Peregrine moved some stray hairs to behind her ear and seemed a little paranoid about something.

"Maria-what?" _I gulped when she asked._

"Maria...reizend!" The bird started to look suspicious.

"Would you come closer please?" _I did, but slowly. She gasped._

"...you are the spitting image of your mother, she was emma bloom, wasn't she?" _I blushed a little while looking down at my feet, my dark hair in my face._

"Your hair color must be your father's, miss...portman. Why I never thought I'd meet you, I had received letters from both your mother _and_ your father as you aged and I must say, you've grown to be a beautiful young lady!" _My face turned red._

"C-can youtellmemoreaboutthempleasemissperegrine?" _I pleaded fast though a little embarrassed._

"Slow down, child!" "I'm 67!" _I told her with a small pout. She sighed, sounding exhausted._

"I'll tell you all you wish to know, but I'd prefer you stay for dinner." She said, trying to compromise. "I'll have Mr. Nullings show you to your room." Then a couple footsteps started running down the hall, maria ran for the door in order to catch what was scurrying away. Claire, bronwyn, and olive was crawling along the ceiling without her lead-lined shoes, and the extra footprints must've been millard. "Mr. Nullings, would you come here?" It sounded more like a simple, patient request than the usual strict orders maria was used to_._ The footsteps stopped then started again toward miss peregrine's room, "yes miss peregrine, follow me, maria." _I was a little shocked to hear him say miss peregrine instead of headmistress, sounded much more casual and much less robotic and creepy. Millard lead me to the third door down from miss peregrine's, I walked in, thanked him and the sound of feet were leaving. After getting in I immediately ran to my bed and checked my arms and legs once more. "Still nothing, they look fine, not even a scar of some sort." I pinched myself...a couple times and still felt slight pain from them. "This...is real?"s_


End file.
